Not Interested, Sorry
by asobi seksu
Summary: AU. A thoroughly modern Romeo and Juliet with a lot more common sense. NiouOC. DISCONTINUED
1. Assignment

Niou Masaharu frowned and began cleaning his gun. It was a comfort thing in times of crisis.

"I have to be a bodyguard for who?"

Sanada sighed. One of Niou's tendencies after being assigned to a mission was to ask immediately what it was, again. It all came from his meticulous plans. Everyone understood if one tiny detail went awry in the process, it would crumble as easily as a peanut-butter cookie. (That was courtesy of Marui, who adored sweets and was only punished one way: seventeen hours locked in the surveillance room without sweets.)

"Princess Sakurakouji."

Niou whistled. "What a mouthful."

Sanada sighed again, more out of impatience. "Niou, read it in the god damned car, will you?"

"All right, _ojii-chan_," Niou said, exasperated, and jerked the portfolio from his employer's hands. "But first, let me pay a visit to Y."

"You're delaying more time!" Sanada said sharply, but it was all for naught; whenever Niou made up plans to do something he refused to listen to someone else. Sometimes it was endearing, but most of the times it was annoying and made Sanada irritated the next time he saw Niou.

-x-

The occupent of the penthouse was startled to see Niou.

"How did you know where I live?" She pursed her lips, irked by his very presence.

"Two and two make four, Y. Or should I tell the security what your real name is... ?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Utter another word and you shall die."

He smirked at the subordination of the boss; she was a good two inches shorter than he was. But nevertheless, he learned not underestimate people under his size. Yukimura Seichii was a good example: she looked delicate, but her dark blue eyes revealed the years of training, fighting, and losing precious comrades under her eye.

"What brings you up here?"

"Oh, I was curious. I was just wondering if, you know, you were really married to my employer."

She smiled, which was really quite rare unless you counted the sadistic smiles she showed when she was busy interrogating suspects in the agency.

"Surprising, isn't it? Yagyuu was the first to figure it out, but he wasn't good enough to reach my real name."

"Not really. You two are together all the time, you're head of the academy, he's vice-head. I just dug a bit deeper after I found out your real name."

"That nose of yours will get you into trouble, Masaharu," she warned sternly. "Look what happened to Fuji."

"She's not dead," said Niou impatiently. "And she's not insane; she's too calm for that batshit."

"You worry too much, Y."

"And you're not careful enough. I'd hate to lose such a talented member. Good Lord, I haven't had such a unpredictable yet reliable member like you."

Niou sighed and began taking out the bullets of his gun, and put them back in again. He always centered his comfort habits around his gun for some reason. But when he was an orphan, and was realized for his potential physical and mental ability, Y had taken him in as her student and if she was feeling sentimental enough, her own child. With Y, he understood love, violence, and the necessities of kicking the hell out of the bad guys. Sometimes the line between wrong and right wasn't clear as he'd liked it to be, but he did a good job and fullfilled everybody's expectations.

Niou Masaharu worked in an agency that Y had started. Originally, she belonged to a clan that had served generations of the Sonozaki family as their lifelong companion and bodyguard. But apparently her sister, Akane, had filled in the only open position, leaving her without the traditional job. Not wanting to waste the years of her young life in constant training, she had opened a top-knotch police academy that also specialized in intelligence and government information. They were sort of like the Prime Minister's first people to go to when he thought he he needed to know something. It was only ran by seven people. Generally when one was dead, another was replaced (but woe betide, Yukimura was in charge of the interview process).

"You'll find another one someday to replace me," he said curtly. "God bless him whoever he is."

Niou was generally not a pessimist. Y did not like pessimism because of the Sonozaki's belief that pessimism made a person's ability decline. But often she allowed people to worry because that was a different matter than being cynical.

He stocked the bullets in his gun, and then walked to the elevator, punching the down button.

"Well, see you, Y. Yagyuu is expecting me."

There were frown lines on Yukimura's face, making her look older than she looked. "Be careful, Niou."

-x-

Yagyuu Hiroshi was twenty-one, which was relatively young compared to the other employers in the academy. Fresh out of his teenager years (he still considered the age of twenty to be a teenager) he had a taste for expensive/fast/both cars, which stemmed from his previous hobby before he got picked up by Y: drag racing. Y first saw his potential after she had witnessed him making a hole-in-one his first time golfing. Dismissing it as luck, he later cemented his reputation by shooting a clip into Y's most trusted bodyguard.

He was the closest thing to a best friend that Niou could ever have, and while Niou was grateful, the two were sometimes at odds. Yagyuu was smart and classy, because he used to belong in that sort of environment until he got fed up with it and started hanging around with the shadier side of the law. Niou was only street smart as far as smart was concerned, and he was incredibly reckless. But usually Niou respected Yagyuu because there was something that you _couldn't _not respect with Yagyuu: maybe it was the fact that he got everything but rejected it all in the name of life, or perhaps it was those glasses that rested on his high, aristocratic nose.

"Sakurakouji-hime, huh?"

Niou nodded and looked out of the Lambourgini's window.

"I talked to her yesterday, briefing her on the details of this arrangement. She's a beautiful girl."

"More beautiful than Carmelita?"

A pause, then--"Niou, none of that here."

Carmelita was an attractive bartender that lived a few blocks away. Niou had noticed Yagyuu on his breaks making excuses to extend it a couple minutes, he was quite busy, and could Marui take care of some of the work he had today?

Niou sighed, and flipped through the portfolio. "Alright, I think I have a photo. Let's see... more paperwork, blah blah blah... aha."

He located a square mug shot of Sakurakouji. He supposed she was quite pretty from the front profile, but he had never given much thought about the opposite sex in general; every person in the academy was male except for Y, and she had made quite clear from the beginning that she did not tolerate sexual relationships. They got in the way and the enemy was bound to use the loved one as leverage. That was also another reason why most of them were orphans.

"So why do I have to be a bodyguard to this old hag?"

Yagyuu's face looked pained. "Niou, she's the _daughter_ of Itakoji Toda."

"Who's he?"

Yagyuu sighed. "You know that in the Diet of Japan, there are two parties: the House of Councillors, and House of Representatives."

Niou nodded; he was fluent in political jargon and had heard all of it before but thought it best to not interrupt Yagyuu in the middle of an explanation.

"Itakoji-san is particularly powerful in his influence; not only is he part of the Liberal Democratic Party, he has support from not only one prefecture, but many. Many business regulations about trade and fairness are all his credit. He is not only a political member that fullfils most of his promises, but he is also tolerant of other nationalities, making him popular in public. His approval rating is very high."

Niou digested this and then asked, "Well, if her daddy's a politician, why is she a princess?"

Hiroshi smiled faintly. "It is because she is often used as a wager against prominent families. Think of Elizabeth the First--why do you think she remained single?"

"Because she thought it was more beneficial to offer other countries with her hand in marriage and withdrew it when it was too late," answered Niou. "Oh! Now I get it... so basically she's just a tool to help her dad succeed with all these rich bachelors and stuff?"

"Yes, in theory. The truth is that her father is very concerned with who she will marry; he knows that quite a lot of people will only look at her because of her political advantages. He wants you to protect her from that."

"From what?" said Niou incredulously. "Die-hard stalkers and a mountain of roses?"

"Well, no. Itakoji-san recently has been concerned about the backlash of public response. He just passed a bill that will curb the amount of mandatory hours of work."

"That's good; I could always use more days off."

Hiroshi shook his head. "You don't understand. Some conservatives are protesting that it is a sign of Westernizing."

"So?"

"They're fanatics, Niou. We don't know what will happen, and Ikanoji-san doesn't trust his own security right now."

Yagyuu pulled up neatly to the driveway to a lavish hotel lobby, where Niou got out of the car, accompanying the purple haired man to the front desk.

"Hi," said Niou to the receptionist. "I'm signing in as Niou Masaharu."

Her eyebrow raised a tiny fraction of an inch, then she switched to her usual professionalism and said, "Just one minute, sir." She turned away from him and made a phone call--"Room one oh one, please. Yes. Yes. Thank you, and good bye."--then faced him again. "Sir, here is your room. I will inform the mistress you are here."

Niou did not change his expression until he and Yagyuu got in the elevator. "I have to _live_ here?!? It's only a half an hour to get here!"

"Yes, but Itakoji is concerned that in any case of emergency, you will not be able to reach Sakurakouji-hime in time. He apologizes in advance."

The silver haired teenager huffed. "He _should_ be... the pay better be good this time."

The doors opened and Niou went to his suite, sliding the slot card in until the light blinked green. "I didn't even bring anything."

"Itakoji-san will supply you with whatever you need, as long as you supervise Sakurakouji-hime." Yagyuu had wanted to linger a bit longer, but Y was an impatient type of woman. "I have to go. Anything you want to say before you spend six months in hell?"

"Sure. Marui's not allowed to crash my room back home, and Jackal better send me a postcard from Brazil."

"Alright, I'll pass on the message. Have a good day."

The door shut with a satisfactory click, leaving Niou to mull over his situation. It definitely wasn't the worst, like the time where he had to go to the Himalayas for some extra training. But he would have preferred familiar terrain; the political range was something uncomfortable to him. He doubted that he would able to notice his social errors that were hidden in the unwritten laws of society.

A sharp rapping on the door interrupted his thoughts and he was already irritated with the whole deal already. "Coming!" he yelled, and opened the door.

He had expected a demure version of a princess, elegant yet refined. But outside was a smartly-dressed woman whose first reaction was to put her mouth in an open O.

"Uh... hi?" Niou offered tentatively.

Her eyes contorted with anger, and before he could dodge, her hand---

_SMACK!_

_

* * *

_

**Author's Note:** Hey, it's been almost six months since I wrote! This whole thing was unplanned, but if it's rushed or anything, please tell me. :) I like concrit.

I'm also looking for a beta if anyone's interested.


	2. Day One

Niou stood flabbergasted, partly angry because he was in pain and the rest angry because he had no reason to be slapped rudely the very second he had met this... beast.

"_Michel! Que fait-tu ici? Est-ce votre idée de la grâce, me laissant à la France, seul face à mon père?_"

"Sakura-hime!" Another angry voice reverberated around the hall, leaving Niou to sigh. What on earth did he ever do to deserve the rage of two people, and on top of it in a language he didn't even understand? Jackal was generally the translator in these situations, both fluent in English and Portuguese, and good enough to carry a decent conversation in French.

A man quickly quelled the uprising surge of fury as he put his hand over the girl's mouth. "We are not in America anymore, Sakura-hime! Please try to act as if you are a dignified person, and not a beast!"

"But, Katsura-san, Michel is right in front of me! How can I forgive his irresponsibility---"

"That is not him who is standing in front of you, that is your new bodyguard, Niou Masaharu!"

She eyed Niou with a look of contempt and flauntered off, without a single look behind her.

Katsura sighed and began to apologize. "I am sorry, sir, for that inappropriate display of behavior. Sakura-hime is not feeling her best today."

"Who is Michel?" interrupted Niou. He had felt put out after not knowing what was going on.

"Her former lover," Katsura explained succinctly. "He was rather... _flighty_."

_Ho-kay_. Niou could see there were a couple of lines that he would be wise to tread carefully over.

"I suppose I'll have to dye my hair over that incident," Niou said dryly, feeling lower and lower the more he thought about his assignment. Not only did this person he was in charge of hated his guts, but he also looked like some asshole that dumped her in the middle of nowhere. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Katsura chuckled. "Oh, I don't think so. Sakura-hime may be petty, but she won't go as far as that. Eventually she'll be able to tell the difference between you and Michel."

"How so?"

"There are tiny differences. Your hair is a shade brighter. Michel has brown eyes while yours are dark blue. Things like that."

"So I won't have to dye my hair."

"In theory. By the way, my name's Katsura."

"Pleasure to meet you. How did you meet Sakurakouji-hime?"

"To tell you the truth, I never really met her. I am her personal servant from birth, and I am in charge of the trivial affairs, such as hiring you, deciding which public functions she can go to without offending any side parties, and so on."

"Oh."

"Now, the reason why I was here in the first place was because I wanted you to come to my suite. I have some business to conduct with you."

**-x-**

"Er... I don't mean to be rude or anything, but how old is Sakurakouji-hime?" Niou asked, slightly curious about his new charge.

"She's sixteen, sir, but she will turn seventeen this June. May I ask the same for you, sir?"

"I'm eighteen," Niou replied, embarrassed. He never liked the fact that he was younger than everybody.

"You're quite young for your occupation. Do your parents approve?"

"I don't have a family," Niou said flatly. "It was of my own volition to enter the police academy."

"I see. Ah, here's my room..." Katsura slid his key card in and opened the door. "Please, come in."

The suite was spacious, and there was a parlor at the back with a good view of downtown Tokyo. It was roomy and comfortable, and Niou was suitably impressed; sometimes the people he worked under didn't even bother to give their long time employees the benefits they should have gotten.

Katsura bought out a tray of various fruits, and took out some bottled water from the mini-fridge. After placing them on the coffee table, his voice took on a tone of seriousness.

"I presume that you read the portfolio I sent to your employer."

Niou nodded.

"I hope you don't underestimate the dangers of this work. Sakurakouji-hime is particularly vulnerable to men, and I believe that one of your jobs is to personally escort her wherever and whenever she goes outside her room."

"How will I know if she's in or out?"

"That's your job," Katsura cut in. "Tomorrow, I am renting a double suite where you two will be living together. Itakoji-san and I will be checking on you periodically to give updates on Sakura-hime's behavior. Provided as you do your job correctly and thoroughly, there won't be any need to worry about her."

Niou's stomach plummeted. How could he live with that sorry excuse of a girl? He imagined arguments every day. Scorn and contempt. Intrusion of privacy. These were the usual reactions of those unused to being looked over by someone who was paid to do their job. And Sakurakouji-hime would be no exception...

"Yes, sir," he replied heavily. Tomorrow would be a bloodbath. Tomorrow would be hell.

"You seem to have a tired expression on your face. Why is that?"

Niou looked up to meet Katsura's dark brown eyes. "To be honest, it's because I'm beginning to think my charge will not be very pleased with my intrusion of her privacy."

"She's had bodyguards before. And do not worry too much, sir, I doubt that she will misbehave as badly as today."

Katsura began to open the bottle of water and took a sip to refresh himself. "One more thing, Niou..."

"Yes, Katsura-san?"

"Do not let her, with no exceptions, fall in love with _anybody_. Understand?"

"Yes, sir." Niou was perplexed, as he didn't really understand what love had to do with his job. Shouldn't it be the fact that she wasn't supposed to be single instead? Oh well, it seemed fairly easy, and as long as she didn't party too hard he wouldn't have any problems...

"You are dismissed."

**-x-**

When Niou woke up, he was too drowsy to notice the four packages on his nightstand. So he took a shower, rinsed his mouth with the crappy mouthwash they provided for him, and did his morning exercises (100 situps, 100 pushups, and 50 pullups by the door) before he was alert enough to take a last look around the room.

Yagyuu had been helpful enough to send the last of Niou's possessions before he had moved into the double suite the next day. That was the good thing about him: he often planned in advance. The bad thing was that it clarified one thing: he was definitely going to be here for a long time.

Katsura had sent him two pairs of uniforms, a dressy designer suit for public functions, and an ordinary suit for everyday purposes. The designer suit was even tailored ("I sized you up when we met!") which gave Niou the chills. He wondered if there was a possibility that Katsura was gay. Katsura had also sent him a GPS to track Sakura-hime if there was ever a time he was unable to reach her.

Sakura-hime had sent him a note: "_If you follow me when I'm on a date, you're good as dead_." This one made him snort. Already he was planning to pull a couple of pranks on her as his introductory greeting. He wasn't called the Trickster back home for nothing.

Y had sent him to his surprise a brand new Kevlar vest that was thin enough to fit under his daily uniform. It was incredibly sleek, and he was thrilled to still get a piece of new equipment. It meant that someone valued his life, and he donned the vest immediately after he admired it from every angle. He then put on the uniform suit--in a weird way, he liked the feel of the material--and to his delight it had many pockets shaped from all sorts of weapon without making the jacket look bulky.

He called the bellhop to take his luggage into his new suite: room 572 and unhappily on the top floor. A hotel without stairs was a bodyguard's worst nightmare. He would make sure that Katsura would pick better locations the next time Sakurakouji would have to stay at a hotel.

At exactly ten thirty, he returned the key card at the lobby and got to the suite at ten thirty-five. He knocked on the door, and surprise surprise, Sakura-hime was waiting for him.

"Take off those sunglasses," she said irritably. "They make you look retarded."

Niou scowled and put his sunglasses into his pocket. They were his favorite pair when he felt he needed to look like a bad ass. "Bodyguards are supposed to have sunglasses, you dolt."

She looked momentarily surprised at his retort but quickly opened her mouth to reply when Katsura said sharply, "No fighting, you two! Cooperation is what Itakoji-san expects from both of you."

Sakura grudgingly retreated and sat down on the creme-colored sofa. Katsura had already taken the only armchair, so Niou was forced to sit next to Sakura, but he made sure there was a foot of space between them. Both of them avoided eye contact deliberately.

Katsura sighed, long, and finally said, "Sakura-hime, meet your new bodyguard, Niou Masaharu. Niou-san, meet Itakoji Sakurakouji."

Neither of them shook hands, and it was most unconvincing when Niou said, "Nice to meet you Sakura-hime."

Her smile was a bit cold as she coolly replied, "Nice to meet you too, 'Haru-kun."

"Now that we've gotten greetings out of the way, I'll confer what today's activity entails. First, you have an afternoon lunch at eleven thirty with Odaguro, who is interested in writing a book about your father and is planning to give you an interview." Katsura scanned his list, scribbling a few notes with his pen. "I suggest you keep away from the newly released bill; the public isn't ready to face that issue yet. Then, you are to accompany your father for a public function involving a cocktail party and then you are to come to represent your father in front of Itakoji's second-biggest sponsors."

"That's all. Any questions?"

Sakura-hime shook her head but Niou asked, "How long will the sponsoring company take?"

Katsura thought about it, and then answered, "About an hour and a half. They are also scouting for political connections like Sakura-hime."

"All right. As long as I get my eight hours of sleep, I'm cool."

Sakura made a face. "You sure I can't skip, Katsura?"

"Not really. If you do then they have the right to withdraw their money from Itakoji-san's campaign."

The teenaged girl sighed dramatically and got up. "I'll go get dressed. I'm in the mood for a dress anyways."

The door closed, and she left Katsura and Niou alone to talk.

"She's only the daughter of a politician. How much does she have to do, anyways?"

"Quite a lot, my friend. Quite a lot."

"What about school?"

"Sakura-hime has a private tutor, and thanks to him she has already graduated from high school."

Niou couldn't think of anything to say. Here was a girl about the same age as him, but she completely different than him in almost every conceivable way. She was thrust in public eye, while his job was to be as discreet as possible. She had influential parents, while he had never gotten to know his. She had opportunities to do something important for the common good. He didn't.

The funny thing was, he felt sorry for her since she was completely trapped in her lifestyle. Even her own servant from her birth told him explicitly to prevent her from falling in love. He wondered if she had the time to have fun, let loose, and just be herself. He wondered if she ever got fed up with it because she wasn't allowed to go shopping by herself or sing karaoke with her friends or do anything that regular teenagers did in their spare time.

"I'm done!" announced Sakura-hime. "Alright then, it's nearly eleven and I'm already getting kind of hungry."

She was dressed in a sunflower calico sundress, bringing out her tan and... green eyes? He didn't know that yellow and green went together.

He liked the effect. Often the only thing that Y would wear was a one-piece office dress, and she wore it almost everyday.

"Hey you, carry my handbag. I'm driving today." Her high heels click-clacked on the tile floor, fingers twirling the keys of a Mercedes Benz and left the suite.

Niou was temporarily shocked by her straightforwardness. How the hell was he supposed to carry her white handbag when his job was to protect her? If any of the guys at work saw him like this, his reputation as a tough guy was chucked out of the window.

Katsura smiled apologetically, as if to say "What can we do?" and motioned Niou to follow him.

Niou had been granted a moment of brilliance and solved his crisis by stuffing the handbag into a plastic grocery bag.

**-x-**

Years of being driven recklessly by Yagyuu on his bad days had made Niou immune to the horrendous driving of Sakura's, but he supposed it was a good thing; it might have been a test for a new bodyguard. Katsura, however, had taken pills right before the engine ignited and had warned, "Don't talk to me in the car. That's doctor's orders."

Ten minutes later, the car halted to a screeching stop, and Sakura (reunited with her handbag, to which Niou thankfully gave back) was fishing for some change.

"Got any change?" she asked Niou (without looking him in the eye).

"Nope."

"'Nope' being a slang. Cut it out," she said evenly. Katsura tossed her some coins and she cranked it in the parking lot meter.

"No, why don't _you_cut it out and stop acting like you're better than everyone else," Niou said coolly. "I'm the person that is going to potentially save your life. At least we can establish an employer-employee relationship."

She rolled her eyes. "Katsura is _your_ employer, stupid. And my dad is _his _employer, so what does that make me? Simple. The person who utilises the employer."

Sakura flicked her hair over, adding insult to injury as Niou began to wonder how far her obnoxiousness could get.

**-x-**

The teenaged girl expertly weaved her way around a crowded bistro, occasionally pushing a harassed-looking tourist out of the way. She was a regular here and one of the waitors who cherished a secret desire for her instantly pointed Sakura to a nearby table. Sometimes there were perks to being famous, Sakura thought, taking off her Fendi sunglasses and sitting down on the elegantly coiled chairs.

Niou and Katsura were resigned to their own table, as she had picked a table that was seated for only two. Luckily for them there was a table that was far enough to give Sakura-hime her privacy but near enough to assist her in case she needed their help, though Niou doubted that would be happening anytime soon.

"She's... erm, what do you Japanese call it? She's very self-efficient." Katsura explained, and ordered two coffees for them. "She does not like the idea of having someone like you watching over her every day. But unfortunately it's necessary because people of her status are bound to be kidnapped, abducted, held for ransom... you get the idea. Men smarter than her have overestimated the danger of the public and have lost their entire fortunes."

Niou took a sip of coffee and nearly grimaced at the bitter taste. He hated coffee whether cold or hot, sweetened or not... Katsura looked as if he was enjoying his, though, and Niou resolved to finish his entire cup. Putting aside personal preferences should be something that the client took for granted, Y had lectured to him once. Sanada himself would consider this as "social training".

"Well, should we get ordering? Odaguro has arrived," Katsura said, head pointed in the general direction of the journalist that was coming to Sakura's table.

**-x-**

Niou had already decimated half of his onion soup before Katsura's course (seared swordfish with a side order of julienned potatoes) had arrived.

"Growing boy, aren't you?" observed Katsura in mild fascination.

Niou grinned. "My job requires energy. It's not like I follow princesses like Sakura-chan every day and bow down to her every need..."

"I'm afraid that job will be passed on to you, Niou-san," Katsura replied a bit more tartly, as he had already finished his coffee. "Following princesses, as _you_ say, yes, but not bowing down to her every need, no."

"Mm. Sakura-hime doesn't look like she's enjoying her food." Back home, Niou had rations. The onion soup was nothing short of a religious experience, and before long he had developed a disdain for people who never finished their meals.

Sakura-hime at the moment had a plate of grilled chicken breast with truffles. It looked positively delicious to Niou (who was still pretty hungry) but Sakura hadn't even touched one morsel of the chicken, nor nibbled on the tender truffles. She was staring intently at Odagura, occasionally frowning but mostly keeping a careful guarded expression on her face. Niou shrugged and began to peruse his menu again.

"Can I order something else?"

"I don't see why not... the portions are pretty small at this place..."

After careful consideration, Niou ordered spaghetti and meatballs. He also ordered a glass of water, but that was after he had made sure he had drank all his coffee.

He had only dug in when Odaguro had stormed off with an frustrated expression on her face. Sakura looked stony and she pushed back her chair, quickly attracting the attention of all the other patrons of the bistro.

"Let's go," Katsura quickly said, not wishing to make a scene, and paid for the meals himself. Niou looked sorrowfully at his pasta, but obediently trotted after Katsura after wiping the tomato sauce from his mouth. He noticed that her plate was undisturbed, lying peacefully between the forceful conflict that had taken place earlier.

In the backseat Katsura had not uttered any comment upon Sakura's behavior inside the bistro. He had only quietly looked with his watch, which was a Rolex and quite a beauty. Niou had once admired it when Y had taken him as a child to the department stores to educate him about regular people.

A minute later, Sakura had pushed a button that pulled up a barrier between her and the occupants behind her. Niou let out a sigh of relief.

He made eye contact with Katsura, but the man shook his head no.

Confused, Niou pointed to his mouth and made talking motions, but Katsura still shook his head. "She's still listening," he mouthed and Niou finally gave up.

**-x-**

"That was a complete fiasco," announced Sakura when they arrived to the suite. "Odaguro is officially the world's bitchiest journalist. I refuse to take any more interviews from now to next week."

"What happened?" Niou asked, only to be shot down with one of her filthy glances.

"None of your business," she sniffed. "And I don't remember having told you. Come, Katsura, let us go for our walk..."

"Only if Niou-san comes," he replied respectfully, in which Niou took the chance to shoot a triumphant smirk in her general direction.

"In that case, I shall retire to my room. You are dismissed until four." Her face haughty, she retreated to her bedroom.

Niou slumped down into the comfortable armchair. This had to be the most exhausting job he had ever taken. He was playing babysitter of all things to the snobbiest brat he had ever met, and he was a full fledged operative! Full-fledged! He even had the tattoo that all graduates received after graduating from the academy.

Katsura patted his shoulder sympathetically. "You get used to it," he said, as if he could read Niou's mind. "She's not the worst thing in the world. I'll be in room 305 if you need me."

**-x-**

By the time Niou had happily used his free time to order a pizza and a Caesar salad, four o' clock came around and he was dreading the next encounter with the intolerable Sakura. The only perk was her credit card that he had nicked from her purse and with any luck wouldn't notice after he used up a good amount. And anyways, despite how much he was paid, it wouldn't be worth all the trouble to put up with Sakura-hime.

He donned his sunglasses with the mindset to ignore whatever disparaging comment she made about them. Sakura's eyes narrowed but other than that she allowed him to wear it without any further discussion. Katsura also chose to ignore commenting on his shades but Niou could tell he was amused, which sent a prickle of irritation down his spine. It wasn't his fault that he wanted to be immature after a day like this.

This time, a limousine personally escorted them from the hotel lobby. Niou, with a bit of imagination, could pretend to be a movie star for all of his surroundings. Sakura herself slid her shades on, looking very glamorous when the chauffeur opened the car door for her. He wasn't too keen on letting Niou in, though, until Niou told him he was her bodyguard.

Niou had never been inside a limousine before and looked surreptitiously around, sneaking covert glances in the interior of the car. Sakura-hime looked as if she belonged here; looking like a star and casually used to fame and glamour. There was an older man sitting next to the girl, and he guessed this would be her father.

"Hello, Niou-san." He was startled at being addressed.

"You know my name?" Niou asked, surprised. "I'm honored, sir."

"Yes, I do a personal background check on whoever is protecting my daughter. You seemed particularly trustworthy, as Sanada recommended you for the job."

_That old man_, Niou grumbled internally. He was going to have a word with him later.

"Is Sanada an acquaintance of yours, sir?"

"Yes. Ah, but what is a hundred acquaintances when you have a job like mine?" The man sighed. "Sakura-hime, Katsura tells me that you've spent this afternoon with Niou today. What is your opinion of him?"

Oh gods, no, thought Niou. He was terrified of the lousy job report to Y more than anything. It didn't matter that Sanada recommended him, or that this man had the power to close down Y's police academy. It was the wrath of Y that scared him the most, although the other options scared him too.

Sakura-hime sniffed. (Here it comes, Niou thought.)

"He's only a man with brawn, not brain. I haven't heard a single intelligent word from him as of yet."

Itakoji looked towards Niou, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, then, you're a pretty sorry excuse for yourself then," Niou retorted.

Everyone froze.

Itakojo was the first to recover, laughing heartily. "Oh! Oh, very good! Oh, ha ha ha! That's the best one that I've heard so far!"

Sakurakouji-hime looked outraged. "How dare you! I have graduated---"

"Oh, be quiet, you foolish daughter," interjected her father. "There is a difference between book learning and real knowledge. Even my secretary isn't as half as honest as this person is."

Sakura only upturned her nose and refused to talk for the remainder of the way.

"So, Niou. What have you learned about my daughter's habits; her quirks and behavior after only a day?"

Niou thought about it for a second. "She's intolerable, and she probably has a tendency to like white objects. She probably has an affinity towards chicken breast and truffles, graduated from high school early, speaks French and English fluently, wears sunglasses, is turning seventeen this June, and is rather selfish and snobby."

"Quite right. And very correct too, although there are some things you get used to after a while."

"Even the obnoxious part?"

"Especially the obnoxious part," confirmed her father. One could observe the slight blush on Sakura's face.

**-x-**

Niou had always thought about owning a mansion. In his daydream, he had a 75 inch plasma television screen, a closet bedecked with all the latest guns and ammunition, and maybe a jacuzzi, if he was feeling peckish. He had thought about buying a bulldog once, but threw away the notion after he realized he may or may not have an allergy with dogs. You could never tell with Yanagi. Yanagi used to have a friend named Inui who often visited the academy often, and the two liked to give creepy predictions that usually ended up giving the victim a lot of worry but never happened in the first place.

So when he entered the house of a certain size, he was awestruck, but being the cool and badass professional that he was kept his eyes on Sakura-hime's back. It must be said that she had a very nice back, but her attitude spoiled the pleasure that Niou would have otherwise admired of a female's back. It curved and was flexible, unlike a man's back, which was strong and sturdy. It depicted femininity and grace, and Niou would have taken the time to admire the shape of a woman's body had it not been the strong feelings of dislike discoursing through his brain.

"Sir, you'll have to wait here. This room is only reserved for VIP."

Sakura's brown eyes connected with Niou's blue and there was a large amount of resentfulness exchanged; Niou wished he could be inside the room, wondering what it would be like, and Sakura wished she could stay outside, wondering what it would be like being a nobody.

**-x-**

Niou was pleased to see there were plenty of food laid out, although the majority of it was crackers and shrimp and basically hand food of all sorts. People were mingling, but he knew almost no one here and consequently drifted from one conversation to another. Elegant women with their hair coiffed and men looking dapper in their tuxes were holding a drink of some sort, whether a crystal flute of champagne or a bright cocktail in sparkling colors.

There was a girl that was approaching Niou in casual steps; she would exchange words with people that were near him and get closer to him.

Niou considered the situation; Yagyuu would have gladly walked up to her and strike conversation. She was incredibly pretty, prettier than even Sakura, and her expression seemed to drink in Niou's clean cut suit. Perhaps she was mistaking him for another carefree bachelor who were blessed with not only all the time in the world but rugged good looks that seemed to attract females like a pot of honey does to flies.

"Hi," she said.

"Oh, hi," Niou said back nonchalantly, as if he had just noticed her.

"Hot, isn't it?"

"Mm. All these people tire me out." It was true. Niou wanted to go home and take another shower; but he was willing to talk to the girl as long as it didn't entail an invitation on her part; he had enough of the hectic lifestyle for a day.

"Really," the girl drawled. Her perfume was delicious; it smelled faintly of lychee and honey mixed together. But that might've been her drink, Niou realized. Whatever it was, the scent was seductive and smelled like danger.

"Really. But matters aside, I'd like to ask the most beautiful girl in the world what her name is. I'm still trying to muster the courage." It was probably the lamest pickup line that Niou had memorized from Yagyuu's troves. But the girl only giggled, which made Niou internally give a sigh of relief.

"It's Yurii Andrekovich, but I prefer Dokidoki Hamayichi." She giggled again, which made her hiccup, obviously a bit addled by her drink.

Niou put a hand to his chest in mock anguish. "Now you're playing me for a fool."

"Why, you handsome thing, who wouldn't want to play you for a fool? It's all a game, isn't it?" She swilled the rest of her drink in one gulp.

"What are you doing, _Haruhi-chan_?" An icy voice sliced through the congenial conversation. Niou did not even have to turn his head to register the voice of his charge. Sakura-hime looked splendid in a green evening dress, ready to par with the girl in front of Niou.

"We were just talking, now, weren't we?" The girl nodded to Niou. "But I suppose if he's your stud, I'll leave him alone."

"He's not my stud," said Sakura with gritted teeth. "He's my bodyguard."

"Oh. Well, in that case..." Haruhi raised her eyebrows importantly and turned on her heel, presumably to find new company.

"And _you_," Sakura added. "Follow me."

**-x-**

The two were taking a walk in the lavish greenhouse with no lighting except for the setting sun. It would have been rather romantic if there was no tension between the two.

Finally, the girl burst out. "You know you are a bodyguard."

"Yes." His lips were curled into a sneer. _Of course I'm her bodyguard! After twelve infuriating hours, she still has to ask me if I'm her bodyguard or not!_

"And you know you are not entitled to my status, nor reputation, nor anything that has to do with my name."

"Yes." He was still waiting for the point.

"I would like to know why, then, you are consorting with my father's political enemy's daughter."

Oh. So that was why she was so angry.

"I wasn't consorting with her, she sort of... sashayed up to me. It's not as if I can't help being incredibly attractive," Niou explained, but instead of mollifying the situation Sakura's expression gradually grew stonier and stonier.

"Miyamichi Haruhi is a person that gets into situations like this. She seduces men of high caliber and when she is done she makes a huge scandal." Sakura plucked off a rose and picked off the petals one by one. "How could you not understand this?"

"You know what, Sakura-hime? You're just fucking conceited to presume somebody like me would understand, alright? Maybe I'm actually inexperienced to this whole showbiz thing, where everything is on display. Maybe my world isn't just as fake or shiny or as likable as yours."

Sakura looked shocked, turning white. "You... have the audacity... to talk... to me?" Her growing rage was gradually turning her speechless.

"Yeah," spat Niou venomously. "Yeah, I think I have the audacity to talk to you like that. I can't believe I have to put up with shitty people like you because of my job."

Now she was turning red. "You---you---"

"Yes, I'm 'you'. Just 'you', 'you', 'you'. I bet you've never even bothered to learn my real name, huh, Sakura?"

He turned his back to her, and stalked out of the greenhouse, incensed by the crappiness of it all. Tomorrow he was going to call up Y and resign from this job, even if it mean scrubbing the lavatories for a month. He didn't care if Y decided to treat him to an extra dose of sadistic training, or if Sanada used him as kendo practice, or whatever they could possibly concoct.

* * *

AN: That was a long chapter. :-D Review please!


	3. Day Off

Sakura opened her eyes, feeling a bit hazy from all the alcohol she had consumed the other night. There she was, on top of a fluffy bed with no idea how she got there, because she was sure that she fell asleep in the limousine that took them back home. If home could be classified as a new hotel suite every month.

She was still dressed in her green gown, now wrinkled and creased. Maybe she would tell Katsura to take it to the dry cleaners tomorrow. Right now she was feeling nauseous and needing a drink of water.

Yawning, she swung her two legs over the mattress and shuffled to the bathroom... until she felt some sort of liquid running through her feet.

Mind now alert, she could not believe her eyes as her whole floor was covered with white Styrofoam cups filled with water. The ones she had spilled were now creating a domino effect, knocking down the rest of the cups and drenching the floor with water.

_Shit!_ her mind cursed inwardly. _Shit shit shit_! Instinctively she tried to upright the cups that were knocking the others down, but her clumsy actions only made the floor wetter and the situation worse.

Instantly she could point to a culprit. That son of a bitch.

_**"TEME!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

**-x-**

Niou was happily getting his eight hours worth of sleep and got up before Sakura did, so he took some time to get a complementary breakfast consisting of four waffles, toast with jam and butter, two pre-packaged cereal bowls, a large banana, and a big cup of milk to wash it all down. The morning was made even better as he imagined Sakura's reaction to the prank that had taken him only thirty minutes to prepare. The hotel staff were excellent to requisition a water dispenser and back again when he realized that Sakura might copy the genius of his idea. He did not like wannabes, especially the female kind.

After finishing his breakfast and then some, he dialed a call to Y.

"Hello? Who is this, and how did you get my number?"

"It's me, Niou."

"Oh. Well then, what reason do you have to call me?"

"I want to quit my job."

"..." Yukimura on the other end was starting to get irritated, what with her low blood pressure.

"I mean, I can't handle it, Y," Niou hurriedly said. "I can't handle babysitting. I'm just not qualified for it."

"NOT QUALIFIED?!?" Y roared. "I'LL SHOW YOU NOT QUALIFIED IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT!!"

Niou gulped. This was the part that he was afraid of. Y was generally calm. Yes. But most people only got to see the calm and composed woman behind her facade.

"SAKURA IS IN DANGER FROM ONLY PERVERTS AND NOT BEING ABLE TO PICK OUT HER HANDBAGS FOR THE DAY, AND YOU TELL ME YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT?!?"

"Calm down, Y."

"NO, I WILL NOT! You little punk, what have I been wasting my time with for 18 years?"

"Alright! Fine! I'll go on with my job, see if you don't mind me be an old man at the end of this!"

"Oh, you already look like an old man," Y's voice had suddenly switched from angry-rage-wrath mode to pleasant-voice-whenever-an-unpleasant-client-showed-up, and Niou knew that he'd better hang up soon or be standing in the unemployment line soon.

"Bye, Y."

Niou's happy mood had dissipated with the fact that there was absolutely no way out. He began to head back to the suite.

**-x-**

"_NIOU MASAHARU_!!!" was the first thing he heard when he opened the door. The next thing he recognized was Sakura in a sopping wet bathrobe ready to murder him with her tiny fists.

Niou smiled and only dodged like a true expert could.

"Now, now, it was only a joke..." he explained, trying not to snicker as she had fetched the newspaper, rolled it up and started hitting his head with it. It didn't hurt, of course, but it did get annoying after a minute or two.

"_Just a joke_? _Just a joke_? How was I supposed to explain to the janitor about the half inch of water that ruined the Tunisian carpet?" She stopped hitting him and broke into a hysterical outbreak of helpless laughter, which made Niou wince. "I hate you!" she said with heated fervor. "I hate you I hate you I hate you!"

"The same to each of us," Niou said candidly, and quite cheerfully took the roll of newspaper out of her hands. "Cheer up, I was trying to, er, inject a bit of _spontaneity_ into your life."

"Oh yes, it's so funny I barely have room to laugh," Sakura retorted sarcastically and retreated to her room. "I'm going to take a shower. You try anything, and you're fired."

_I wish_, thought Niou. _I wish._

**-x-**

When Sakura was done showering and popped out with a lavender robe (how many bathrobes did she own, anyway?) Niou had been reading the newspaper in the Classified section still laughing over his joke. Katsura was supposed to show up at ten, but now it was fifteen minutes past ten.

"Where's Katsura?" she asked Niou.

"Late," replied Niou and turned the page to read about a box full of poodles selling for five thousand yen. She scowled and shut her door.

A minute later, she plonked on the sofa to turn on the television. She didn't even bother to comb her hair.

Niou noticed and raised an eyebrow. "Slumming off today?"

"When he's not here, that means I don't have anything to do." Apparently she was in too much of a good mood to snap back at him.

"Alrightie then."

"Shhh. This is my favorite drama, and it only comes weekly."

Niou tore his eyes away from the newspaper and looked at the television. There was a cheery image of a girl with bangs and four extremely beautiful men. Whether they were gay or not was everyone's guess. The people were standing on the cliff, and the background song started with a voice that shouted, "_Almost paaaaaaaaaraaaadiseeeeeee_~!"

"Kyaaaaa!!! The F4!!!" squealed Sakura, her eyes wide and shining. "My beautiful princes in shining armor!"

Niou, whose first impression of Sakura was someone who took herself very seriously, was beginning to feel afraid. Once time Y had a "little" (only _she _deemed it 'little') obsession with Japanese pop idols and had started taking Niou (and Sanada) to live concerts every day. To this very day, he had made sure that Nana Kitade stays far, far, away from his guns/ammo magazines and that he keep at least five feet away from posters of Hamazaki Ayumi, whether in a cafe or the convenience stores where the cashiers like to put magazines in the window to attract schoolgirls coming home from the tedious routine of school and wearing the same old uniform day after day.

He had figured out a couple of things after the episode was over: 1) Katsura was definitely not giving them a to-do list today, 2) the drama was called "Boys Before Flowers", 3) it lasted for an hour, and 4) her favorite character was apparently this guy called "Yi Jung" who turned out to be a major player. Go figure.

Yagyuu, he decided, would probably be the perfect boyfriend for a person like Sakura-hime. He was patient and flashy at the same time, which Sakura would probably love. He probably would overlook her Royal Bitchiness because she was so freaking cute that a person like him and a gentleman of his caliber would tolerate the drawbacks of dating her.

"Mou," she pouted. "Gu Jun Pyo is being so mean~... I would treat someone so cute like Jan Di better, just because my mom said I shouldn't date her..."

"Done fantasizing now?" Niou asked in a bored tone. It was entertaining for the first thirty minutes since he was still trying to figure what was going on, but he had a short attention span and the whole romantic drama thing really didn't appeal to him. He guessed it was another girl thing that appealed to them , just like the time when Hannah Montana went to Japan. It was incredible how many people actually went to see her, seing as she wasn't so popular in the East as she was in America.

"Niou, shut up."

"All rightie, but from what I think, Jan Di is on the borderline of stupidity."

"Uh-huh. Well, have you ever loved someone so much that you were willing to move to a different city for him?"

"No," said Niou dryly. "I'm not that stupid, either."

"Of course you wouldn't. You're just a bodyguard. You wouldn't know any better."

"Hey, my _boss_ is married. How do you know she wasn't a bodyguard?"

She glanced at him. Okay, so maybe they weren't best buddies forever, but they were making progress.

"Look, just let me go with my dreams, okay? I... I know I'm not supposed to fall in love or that kind of crap. I know Katsura tells every one of you the same thing: to not fall in love with the wrong person. I get it. So... just leave me alone about that." Sakura ran a hand through her hair, looking agitated. "That's why I don't care if Jan Di is defying logic or whatever bullshit you realists come up with. I hate it when somebody tells me that it can't happen in real life."

"But it can't," said Niou sensibly. "How many rich sons can afford to marry someone careless and stupid and annoying like her? I mean, really? There are millions of girls just like her. There's absolutely nothing special about Jan Di."

Her eyes drooped. "It doesn't matter either way."

"Look, Sakura-hime, you don't have to watch a drama to feel loved. Take me, for example."

"Take you?" Sakura snorted. "What are you good for, except for protecting me from some freak out there in the big bad world?"

"Lots of things. For instance, I can pick a lock faster than you getting dressed."

"Uh-huh," she said skeptically.

"Yup. And I bet I could eat a cow if I wanted to. But Momo-senpai beats me in the huge appetite category."

"Oh yeah? I bet some of my friends..."

**-x-**

They had spent the entire afternoon talking. And there, both Niou and Sakurakouji-hime discovered one thing, and that was companionship with the opposite sex around the same age. It was refreshing and once Sakura had dropped the rich brat act, she was actually quite nice. Niou just had to coax it out; after all, he was a bodyguard who was going to stay by her side twenty four hours every day of the week for quite a while.

"I wanted to apologize to you for yesterday."

"Oh... that. Well, I think you've kind of redeemed yourself for that now."

"The thing is, Niou, is that in my world you have to act like you belong there. Or people will walk over you."

"Yeah, I kind of got that now. Where I come from, it doesn't matter how much money you have unless you're one of our clients."

"Clients... say, that reminds me, Katsura might have a client around this hour--- oh! It's already twelve, and I haven't had breakfast."

"What happened between you and Odagura yesterday?"

She made a face. "That little rat... she got hold of my father's rough drafts and wanted to make a mountain of a molehill. She was interrogating me, but I told her I didn't know anything. I think she didn't believe me, and she kind of got tired of asking me the same questions over and over. I hated that too, so she ran out on me."

Sakura got up to change. "I'm going out to lunch. You'd better get ready."

There she was again, making the rules for him again. He had never gotten used to it and despite their new sorta-kinda friendship, he wasn't going to forgive her too easily. She was still bossy and in control. Then he reminded himself that this was the way it was supposed to be, and that he was already lucky for actually starting to be on good terms with her. Sakura-hime was still hinting, however, that she didn't forgive him yet for the prank in the morning.

He chuckled. What could someone of her brains do, anyways? He was someone who paid attention to detail, and if someone didn't feel right, he zoomed in on the danger spots, devoting his immediate attention to the problem. It was the reason why he was more or less left intact. Some members had lost parts, a finger, or maybe worse, like an ear when they were caught off guard. It was a lucky thing that they had an excellent medical staff back at home provided you got there on time.

The door to her bedroom opened again and Sakura-hime had walked out. Funny, he thought. He didn't like the word 'hime' very much anymore, and was starting to think more and more of her as simply 'Sakura'.

_Don't get attached._

He flicked his eyes around, wondering who was talking to him.

_Don't get attached._

He was wondering why Sakura didn't hear the voice, but the thought vanished after she impatiently said, "Well, Niou? Am I going to wait for an hour, or what?"

"Sorry, let's go now."

**-x-**

This time, Niou drove the car that was bought for her on her sixteenth birthday. Sakura had explained him about driving, and getting a license in America.

"Well, I know that the jurisdiction here is really different here both culturally and nationally, but when I lived in America, it was a rite-of-passage kind of thing. Dad was the one who bought me a Porsche because he didn't want me to stick out like a log. In America, I was normal; I was just another foreign exchange student."

Niou mused on how different it would be if Japanese students didn't have so much workload from day one. A great deal of them were just getting home at six o' clock, what with their school schedule and extra curricular activities. Then again, there was a reason why American students were a lagging a bit behind Asian productivity.

"So, why'd you go to America? I thought your dad was a Japanese politic."

"And study with Gakushuin rich kids? Hell no. Nah, I hate working as much as any sane person does, and what better place to do that than go on a permanent vacation? I studied in California. There's a pretty big Asian population over there, so I learned English pretty quickly. Being surrounded by people who speak it all the time helps too."

"You were a freshmen over there?"

"Uh-huh. And a sophomore, too. In my junior year Dad thought it would be a lot better if I went to a French boarding school. It wasn't as fun as the school in California because the students are so solemn and ridiculously serious. Luckily I had a tutor, and I combined both 11th and 12th grade courses so I could get the hell out of there."

"The idea of wearing a high-school uniform never appealed to you?"

"Nope," she said bluntly. "I'm too famous and I hate it. There's the fact that I'm a girl, too, so you have creepy mail from all sorts of people. I got a proposal from this Arab guy once."

Niou smiled. "I wonder what he was thinking about when he wrote the letter to you."

"My green eyes, I bet."

Niou glanced at her eyes. "But they're black."

"Are you kidding? These are contacts. My grandma was half Japanese, half European. These things often skip a generation. You can't believe how weird it is for random people to talk about your eye color."

She certainly at any rate liked to talk a lot, but he largely suspected that it had to do with not being able to drive. He didn't mind. It made her feel more human.

He stopped at her command, parked their car, and got out. "Where are we going?"

"You'll find out."

**-x-**

They passed a few passerbys staring, as the two made an odd couple--his hair being the primary culprit, and her habit of wearing large sunglasses that perched on her nose.

"Taxi!" cried Sakura, as she tried to flag one down. "Taxi, please!"

"What are you doing?" asked Niou incredulously, gaping at the girl waving her hands wildly in her pursuit of something. "We have the car---that would waste money!"

Fortunately Sakura was spared from answering as the familiar yellow car sped towards him. "Get in. I don't want to be tracked by Katsura."

"Katsura put a tracking device on that car?"

"Yeah," she said nonchalantly. "Hachiko Courts on Boulevard 39,"

The taxi driver looked at her curiously, a man who had wore a cap and smoked heavily. "Are you sure about the address? I've never heard of this street none."

"It's a bit north of the tower."

"All right, I'll just be figuring out the destinations, ma'am."

"You do that," she said, and pulled the partition that divided the front from the back. "It's great to have a day off."

"Where are we going?"

"I'm visiting a friend of mine."

"What friend?"

"A true friend, I suppose, but he might interest you. He plays tennis."

"I don't play tennis," was his automatic response.

"Liar. I read about you winning a couple of tournaments when you were a kid. That was, until..."

She gave him a dark look and continued. "I thought I had mistaken you for someone else. But I guess you were wrong after I dug up those old newspapers."

**-x-**

Niou had tuned out when Sakura had mentioned tennis. It had used to be a sport that he played for fun after Y had expressed her wish that he would grow up to be a regular boy. And he was, with the exception of having nine full years of martial arts training and having memorized the protocol for being well defended against possible dangers.

Then his coach had gotten a bit involved with his family history, which ended up with him being shot in the head twice.

_Don't get attached._

He blinked again, feeling oddly surprised to find himself in a taxi cab and a girl besides him. The sun was making him uncomfortably hot, and his sweat was running down in rivulets down his back.

"... Niou? Niou, are you paying attention? Earth to Niou. Niou..."

"Yes?" he replied quickly, and unnaturally loud.

"I was wondering where you've been for the last ten minutes. You've been staring at the carpet for a long while."

"It's the sun," he fibbed, not wishing to dwelll too much on that bloody memory. "It's making me feel warm and drowsy."

"You shouldn't overwork," Sakura said demurely, the familiar snobbish look almost coming back to her face. "And I suppose it comes from the smoke. I should open the window..."

"Right," Niou said absentmindedly, taking out his gun to unload the bullets.

"Don't take that out, Niou!" Horror filled Sakura's eyes, and they darted toward the door. "What are you doing?"

"It's just a habit," he said and began polishing one of them with a finger, feeling the cold, merciless metal boring into his skin. He wondered what it would feel like, being shot at. His experience did not go very far with guns.

"That is so _creepy_. And lethal."

"There's a safety on the gun to prevent me from accidentally shooting my fingers off. Jeez, you girls are so overdramatic." He put the bullets back into the gun, feeling a bit better.

"Still, it's a gun. You can never be too careful."

"Yeah, and you can never be snobby enough to make a person sick."

"Wow, you're still holding a grudge to that?"

"Takes a hundred meetings to reverse a bad first impression, right? Oh look, we're almost there, now we should drop the subject and talk about this mysterious friend of yours. Tell me, is another Haruhi waiting over here? Or is this another friend where people of my status gets trodden on?"

Sakura chuckled. "First, Haruhi's a bitch, so that rules out the 'mysterious friend' theory. And second, he treads on everybody because he _is_ that kind of person. Even if he was dirt-poor he'd still think he was king of the world."

The car stopped and Sakura got out. "We're here."

**-x-**

To his dismay, they arrived at another enormous villa. Niou sighed. He was starting to dislike large houses because it began to counter common sense. What was the point of having a huge place when you didn't even need all that space?

"Atobe! Come out and show your ugly face! I've got a new friend over here."

"Ahn? Ore-sama is in the left wing, Sakurakouji-hime. He also does not appreciate the slur to his face."

"See what I mean?" Sakura said to Niou, as she opened the mahogany French doors with one arm (which was a bit impressive) and went inside the opulent hallway. "It doesn't matter how rich you are or how awesome you could be; he still would act in the most annoying fashion possible."

"I can see that," Niou said, eying a life-sized portrait of what he assumed to be Atobe. "It also reminds me of someone in front of me..."

Sakura smacked him playfully. "Suuuuuure, Niou, you keep dreaming."

It took them five minutes to walk over to where she thought Atobe would be. "Hmm... seems like he's been remodelling. Oh well, I know a good shortcut."

She suddenly smacked a woodpane below the staircases out of random, leaving Niou to puzzle over her behavior. Then, to his amazement, the bookcases on his left slid to reveal an elevator.

"C'mon," Sakura said. "He likes his own shortcuts; he was the one who designed all the nooks and crannies." She stepped inside, and pushed a button. Niou followed suit.

Niou was still flabbergasted. "How much time do you guys have, anyway? I mean, _an elevator inside a two-story house_?"

"It's not because we're handicapped, Niou," said Sakura in an irked tone. "There are some places in the villa that are visited more often than others. Those are easily accessed by staircases and main hallways. But sometimes, there are places where one retreats to have privacy, such as Atobe's west wing, that has to have an entryway that ordinary people like servants and such not go in. This is one of these areas. They are also excellent to smuggle illegal substances such as certain alcohols and things that you cannot find unless you go to the black market."

"Well, it still sounds extraordinary to me." Then, there was an abrupt shift. "Wait... aren't we going _sideways_?"

"Yes, we're going sideways. It's a Taiwanese invention, top of the market. The north half of the second floor is a lot like a grid."

Ding! The doors opened and Niou entered another hallway, which seemed more decadent than the tasteful decoration he had seen downstairs. For example, there was a questionable vase that had a Minotaur ripping apart a man. Another decoration that seemed too bizarre to Niou was an entire wall that was wallpapered with images of the Parthenon.

"He's highly interested with Greek literature," said Sakura, as if she had read his mind. "It's ridiculous how intelligent he is, but don't let him hear you; it'll only to serve to inflate his ego."

They reached a room with the number 101 scrawled on it. Niou glanced at the next door, which read 3015. Again Sakura said, "George Orwell reference, from the novel 1984. You should read it sometime; it's absolutely creepy and fantastic at the same time."

"I'll make sure of that," said Niou, but privately thought that he couldn't be assured of that sort of taste--and anyways, he probably wouldn't have the time, either.

She knocked on the door in a semi-circle, which he assumed it to be some sort of secret code. This whole day was getting weirder and weirder.

"Come in," a masculine voice intoned, and before Niou knew what was going on, he was struck with light.

* * *

Author's Note: YAY for Atobe's room! :D I've always imagined him to have a Secret Garden type of thing, and it's not too unlikely considering his money.

I decided not to write another 4,000 plus chapter to serve character development. Sakura's previous personality is completely fake, and I wanted to establish that fact after Niou and Sakura have a face-to-face talk. And he's already gained her respect, even if he's kind of annoying and naive to the lifestyle she's living.

Review please. :D Make them longer if you have the time!


	4. Meeting Atobe Keigo

Niou had never been to a host club. He was a guy, for god's sake. But in the room were two very handsome men dressed dashingly. He resisted using his arm to shield his eyes from the light.

"Who's this?" asked a man who had blue hair and glasses. Niou noted he had a heavy Kansai accent.

"Everyone, my bodyguard, Niou Masaharu. Niou, that's Oshitari Yuushi. The nasty looking guy on the right is Atobe Keigo."

The man on the left only gave a disdainful look at Sakura. "Ore-sama does not approve you bringing people he does not know to his private areas."

She grinned. "He's not just any old bodyguard. He can hang out with us and play poker."

"Sakura-san, may I remind you that your father would be appalled to find you in the company of---"

"Psychotic ex-boyfriends?" quipped Sakura, who looked only mildly concerned. "He's still sour that you won't accept his proposition."

"He's your ex-boyfriend?" asked Niou. "Kami-sama. You seem to have a lot of them."

Atobe snickered. "I like him already."

Sakura looked as if she had not heard him. "Daddy made him break up with me after Keigo's father kind of broke a deal between them. It wasn't too bad. Kei-chan's much better being the annoying friend that you can tune out than the annoying boyfriend that happens to shower you with attention."

"So... the relationship was legal?"

"Of course it's legal!" Her eyes were now sparked with a hint of amusement between them. "As in, my father and Katsura saying yes. But not legal as in yeah I can have monkey sex whenever and wherever I want."

Atobe coughed suddenly. "Shut up, Sakurakouji-hime."

"Oh! Right, I totally forgot." Sakura made her way to Atobe and put an arm over his shoulder. "He's getting married, by the way."

"Congratulations!" Niou said, exchanging his hand, while the other shook it, looking miserable already.

"Are you kidding? More like hell," added Sakura. "He hasn't gotten a good night's worth of sleep for the last month or two."

"You're not making it any better," snapped Atobe. "She's a beautiful woman, but I don't see the point of having a dramatic ceremony for marriage. There's always divorce."

"Don't be so pessimistic," chided Sakura. "I'll still see you every Tuesday for strip poker."

"Whore."

"Man-whore."

"Tch. Plebeian."

"Gauche."

"Will you two cut it out?" interrupted Oshitari, who so far had remained silent. "You're scaring Niou-san over there."

Well... he was. Like "_what kind of relationship did THEY ever have in the first place_?" scared.

"I don't get why I'm supposed to be here," Niou said a bit slowly. "I'd thought you'd be the last person to be invited for a crash-in party."

Atobe looked at him. "Ore-sama trusts Sakura's habit of keeping interesting company, although not all of them have good intentions towards Sakura-hime. They all want money or fame or perhaps the benefits of hanging around her such as connections. What do you want?"

Niou considered it. "I guess I'd like a job where you don't have to ruin everyone's lives. But it'd have to be something physical too, because I'm not exactly into white-collar jobs or sitting at a desk all day."

"What a sub-standard answer. I'd expect him to be truthful."

"Then you're a fucking hypocrite, aren't you?" Niou replied instantly, without thinking.

The room instantly became silent.

"Get out," said Sakura quietly. It was not a request from her part. "Please, step out of the room."

He got out quickly, breathing hard and trying to suppress his growing anger. Did everyone believe he was truly dishonest? Or perhaps was it a stereotype that was only broken by true inclusion--that he had to be rich and influential first to gain her respect? He tried not to dwell on Sakura's previous behavior. If there was ever a dishonest person, it would have to be her. She fooled her father, him, and literally everybody who chose not to have a decent conversation with her...

She came out a minute later, avoiding his eyes. It was uncomfortable, especially in the elevator.

"I'm sorry."

No response, but he detected a certain viciousness in her after she had nearly broken the car handle (Atobe had lended them one) in an effort to wrench it open. She drove in a haphazard fashion, ignoring the neighborhood cats and dogs, sometimes swerving to avoid a nearby squirrel. It was very woody in this area.

"Fuck, Niou, but if you can't handle the pressure of being degraded, I think you should quit." Finally she talked, but the anger was mostly gone.

"I... yeah. All right."

"I know you're from a place where you are respected. Katsura told me. First class training, huh? Much better than a rent-a-cop that you see patrolling the streets." He could sense the sarcasm in her tone instantly, which only served to make him more depressed.

"I guess." Now he was looking out of the window, not being able to meet her eyes and the painful honesty that was reflected in them.

"I respected you when you told me to stop acting fake. But sometimes respect can only get you so far."

Niou tore his eyes away from the window and forced himself to look at Sakura. "I thought you said you hated me."

"How can I hate someone who's so honest it's sickening? It's simple for you: if someone treats you like shit, either you can whip out your gun and demand him to apologize, or do something to get back at them. For me, I have to change my mind all the time." She ran a hand through her hair again. "Niou... you're just not getting my point."

He tried to. But no matter how long he analyzed his encounter with Atobe, the swooping rush of anger came back. "You're not one to talk; I bet you've never had to step down a notch."

She was a bit quiet after that. "You're wrong."

Niou cast a skeptical eye over her. She did not talk after that, her and him, because neither had any energy.

**-x-**

Sakura made him take the other car that Niou had parked on the avenue that they left a couple of hours ago. "I'll be taking the other one to one of my workers," she said dully, leaving him to go back to his room, wondering if Yagyuu was on a mission, and wondering if he would ever get used to this kind of life. He needed someone to talk to badly, but he couldn't think of anybody. Finally, he wandered off to the lobby, which he identified with closely, as he had grown up with Western customs.

Some women, ostensibly tourists, were eying him, and perhaps a bit lower than his torso. He ignored them. He didn't want Sakura to yell at him again for attracting trouble.

Niou took a seat near the fountain in the lobby of the hotel, hearing to the friendly splash of water but not listening.

_"You're wrong."_

He wondered what she meant by that. She had everything, it seemed, to him: a great personality, plenty of male attention, money, friends... Why was she so unhappy then? The benefits seemed to outweigh the disadvantages. It didn't seem plausible to Niou that she could actually be dissatisfied...

He laughed a little to himself after he found out there was one thing in common that they shared: they were pretty much discouraged from being romantically tangled. Even if Sakura had all those exes, her father would use them to his advantage. Yukimura would have to kill him first if he ever got a girlfriend, which made him a bit put out. It wasn't any of _her_ business if he took a fancy to any of them or not.

Then he remembered a name. Michel. The French guy that she had mistaken him for at their first meeting. He wondered what she had said to him in French; what Michel had done to her for her to be so angry at the thought of him. He shuddered. He had never had a grudge that lasted for so long that easily summoned his anger to that extent.

The sound of a child who threw a penny into the fountain jerked him out of his musings; he was laughing loudly at Niou who probably did look very funny, as children often think anyone older than them and a stranger funny. It made Niou give a bit of a wry smile; he had lost his innocence quite a long time ago to believe the best of anyone nowadays. Then the boy followed his parents, which brought Niou back to another point: he had no parents. He would have liked to have known them; the most he could coax out of Y was that they had both died in a car crash. He didn't quite accept this as the truth, but he had never met them in the first place, so he couldn't tell. All of his memories had Sanada and Y serving as his temporary guardians. He didn't go to school either, like ordinary kids did at that age.

His teammates were all much older than him, now that he thought about it: Jackal was in his thirties and so was Marui (but still looked like an adolescent teenager), Sanada was obviously old and Y was around that range. Renji, who collected intelligence was an old colleague of Sanada's, and the three were known as the Legendary Three Demons for working together in synch. Kirihara was twenty-one, which might have been a bit closer to his age but his department was so far away from Niou that he barely got to talk to him very much. Yagyuu was his only friend, but his tastes in life didn't make Niou relate to him very well. He'd never had a friend to trust who wouldn't get blown apart at the sound of gunshot.

Niou looked up at the ceiling, where the sun was beginning to set. He went back to his hotel suite.

**-x-**

Katsura had arrived at six in the morning, which was caused no limit of irritation from Sakura.

"For god's sake, I need my fucking ten hours of sleep," she moaned as she laid headfirst in the cream-colored sofa. Niou was used to getting up early, so it wasn't too bad for him.

"You have an appointment from the salon. The stylist called me today to say that she has a ton of appointments. If you don't get there by seven, you're not going to get another chance for another month or so, and that's only because I'm friends with her."

"Oh, screw her. I feel dead today, Katsura. Why do I feel so bad from a day off? I thought they were supposed to help my stress levels, dammit..."

"That's because you didn't get back here until eleven," piped up Niou most unhelpfully, who by now had completed his hundred pushups. He headed towards the door to do his pullups, in which Katsura had taken a healthy dose of interest (and if Niou was a bit more paranoid, his abs). "Ordinary people like you should get more sleep."

"Shut up," she said resignedly. Then she pushed her body away from the couch and lumbered to her dressing room. "I'll get dressed..."

"Good girl," Katsura said happily. "Keri will be pleased this time." He checked his watch, looking at Niou. "And aren't you..."

"I'll be done with it in thirty seconds," Niou said, panting a bit. "Okay, now I'm done. I'll be taking a shower too."

**-x-**

"So, why are we getting a hair job at the salon?" asked Niou, putting on his sunglasses (because they're fucking awesome and he's not going to let anyone diss them anymore).

"Because she asked me to yesterday," Katsura answered. "She's dyed it various colors."

"Hey, they were _good _colors," Sakura wrapped a finger around a perfect lock. "My hair is totally gorgeous and deserves treatment."

Her contemptuous look was primarily directed towards Niou, as Katsura's was shinier and cleaner than his own.

"I just took a shower!" he protested, only getting a quirked eyebrow from her. "And I'm no model, my job's to protect from some psycho that's going to shoot you."

She only sighed and entered the car. _Do you really have no idea how devilishly handsome you are_? was her thought, but was secretly glad he was unable to read minds. Only his brutally honest personality had prevented her from flirting with him after getting to know him better the other day.

**-x-**

Niou, unlike his male contemporaries, had never wondered how long it took for a girl to get her hair cut. He always had a dye job every six months after the color began to fade, what with the rigorous physical activity he had to go through daily, and his roots were expertly touched up by himself. Y was a good indicator of his finesse; she was helpful when it came to spotting things that he hadn't noticed. When asked about his color, he simply said it was a matter of preference. The color just clicked with him, since silvery-white was just as mysterious as it could get. It made an instant statement wherever he went, but maybe Marui's magenta-ish hair got more response from the average person than his own hair did.

A few females in the salon waiting for their turn struck up conversion, mostly about what they wanted for their new look. Niou did not pay much attention, preferring to sit next to Katsura and perusing his _Guns and Ammo_magazine. He was starting to read about Teflon covered bullets and the new slugs they were planning to release next year until a girl around fourteen began to give a shrill "Kyaaa~! Look, look! Atobe-sama is coming!"

Niou whirled his head around, cricking his neck in the process. Was it really him? He thought people like Atobe got stylists to work in the comfort of his own home. He certainly had the money for it.

Amazingly enough, it was him and he was walking unaccompianied to the salon.

"Atobe-san!" said Katsura, who was just as shocked as the rest of the customers sitting next to him. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see Sakurakouji-hime, who I heard was getting her hair done today. It's nice too see you, Katsura, Niou." Niou only gave him a perfuntory nod before casting his eyes for another subject. He still was a bit embarrassed about the whole incident.

"You know Atobe-san, Niou?"

"Uh... not really. But he's always on the headlines, and I guess maybe Sakurakouji-hime told him about me." Niou was an excellent liar when he was supposed to be.

"I see," said Katsura. "But I'm sure that Sakura-hime will not be pleased to see you..."

Niou suspected Sakura had kept a great deal of secrets away from Katsura, but wisely thought that it was her decision to deal with. He wouldn't mind being fired from his job anyways, with him committing ridiculous social errors that seem to plague him like fleas to a dog.

As expected, Atobe ignored Katsura's warnings and strode over to the hairdressing room where Sakura was being held at the current moment.

"Mou, was it that girl we saw earlier with the pretty long hair?"

"She wasn't that pretty," another one said dismissively. "And anyways, he's getting married. I read it in the newspaper a couple of days ago."

"EH?!?" was the resounding response. Niou was trying not to laugh as he might get mauled by the horde of women (Y didn't let him hit girls in particular). There were cries of "You're kidding!" and "Mou, there's really no chance for me now," and one rather pessimistic person had commented, "Well, there's always divorce."

Niou sighed a sigh just like Sakura-hime did when she was being impatient and picked up his magazine again.

**-x-**

Niou was a bit shocked to see Sakura with a short pixie cut, but he decided it looked better than her long straight hair. She had dyed it a dark brown-reddish color, which was more interesting than black. Her face now looked a bit rounder and less mature, and it worked, in an odd way.

"I like your hair."

"Thanks," she said, flashing a grin at him. His stomach gave a weird squirm. Then he realized he hadn't gotten any breakfast.

"Hey, can we get some breakfast? I'm starving."

She rolled her eyes. "Boys. So single-minded, but alright, we're getting breakfast."

"And if I can pick, can I have one of those rice-ball-things, whatever you call them?"

"You've never heard of onigiri? Wow, that's really interesting."

"Never bothered to learn what they were called," Niou said offhandedly. "I prefer to eat different types of food rather than just Japanese, but the culture difference is like, _stark_, when you don't have enough money to buy a lot of meat."

"I don't know what's it like to eat rice everyday," Sakura confided with a grin. "I guess it's just a matter of variety."

They stopped at a small coffee shop, where Katsura went over their agenda for the day. "It's mostly an easy day for you two today, but unfortunately I have a meeting scheduled with Itakoji-san today, so I can't supervise you all the time. I hope I can trust you."

Niou nodded solemnly, thinking that Katsura was being serious but the girl opposite him rolled her eyes. "Really, Katsura-san? I have been roaming the ghetto area of Tokyo since I was six."

Katsura ignored her and took out a map. "Niou, you're driving, by the way. Some of our old acquaintances have showed up. We don't know why, but they are throwing a bit of a banquet to start over, after moving their offices all the way from South Korea."

"Blah blah blah," said Sakura. "Hey, Katsura-san? Why the heck do I have to do this if I'm single, sixteen, and like, not having a job at all?"

"Because you're the daughter of an important politician who flirts all the time with business propositions, stupid," Niou said, stirring his lemonade with a straw. "I mean, you'd practically have to die first before you quit your job of being a sexless pinup model."

Sakura glared at him. "I am not a pinup model! And you're my bodyguard, I should be in charge of your salary."

"Ah. But here's the thing: _you're not_. So be quiet and finish your pancakes, or I might just steal one away."

"You have a smart mouth," she said grudgingly and started on her breakfast.

Niou couldn't help muttering under his breath, "I know. And the rest of me's not so dumb, either."

"I heard that," she snapped.

**-x-**

They had spent the rest of the day playing cards, with Niou winning about a hundred dollars ahead of Sakura, who was getting extremely ticked off.

"That's it. You cheated," she said. "I call off the game, so I'm taking back my money."

Niou grinned good-naturedly. "You should've quit a long time ago, kid."

"Shut up. I swear you cheated, you egoistic bastard."

"What dirty little mouth you have. I'm surprised acid isn't dripping whenever you happen to be sarcastic." He slapped a couple of cards on the table with a triumphant "Royal Flush, yo."

"ARGH!" Sakura said in frustration. "You are like, the only bodyguard that has ever done that. I've won every time I play cards with them."

"Well, bodyguard material does not really constitute of card game smarts."

"That's true."

"And anyways, I learned from the best. You were a good opponent." He didn't feel it was the best moment to say that "Trickster" was his nickname and that playing card games were his specialty. It was a side-effect from being alone for most of his adolescent years. He had been driven to so much boredom that he had to entertain himself; he wasn't a person that was naturally quick-witted or clever; it just came from the habit of having to have to think of something new every single day.

"Oh, phooey. We've been playing cards for all day I haven't decided what my dress would be. C'mon."

"What?" Niou was confused. Where were they going?

"My room, smart one. Let's see if under that masculine appearance you can stand to see me try on about a thousand dresses."

He followed her. He had never seen her room before, but to his surprise it was clean of her personality. It was devoid of things that made it a room to be lived in; the bedcovers were neatly folded, the pillows plumped up, but there were no fashion magazines that littered the floor, no bottles of nail polish accidentally left on the nightstand that proved a teenager girl slept here every night.

Sakura's eyes picked up his confusion and explained, "I hate staying in hotels because it's not my real room... I mean, I go to a lot of different places, so if I don't start to clean up by myself, I'll eventually get attached to this place, which I don't want."

"Oh." Niou didn't get the logic in it, as he didn't have a sensitive nature as a girl's. "But this is a great place. It's loads better than the bunk I had at home."

"Ha, try staying here for a year, and you'll get what I mean."

"How does your dad pay for a lavish suite like this in the middle of Tokyo? I mean, I actually have some elbow space and then some." He sat on the bed, watching her going to her closet.

"He doesn't. The hotel's kind of flattered that he's making this his temporary headquarters. They're hoping that this will attract more customers."

She went over to the windows and flung them open, letting the noise of rushing cars and the drum of traffic seep into the room. "This window is great," she said happily. "Niou, come here."

Niou came over and saw the view. "Very urban, I see."

"You want to know what my secret hobby is?"

He smiled. "Sure."

"Spitting," she said. "Ooh look, there seems to be a high-and-tighty woman coming over." She hacked, collecting a wad of saliva before spitting, hitting the target dead on.

They could hear the steady stream of profanities below their floor even with all the noise pollution. It was music to Niou's ears. This girl was not only the most amazing person he had ever known, but she also had an agreeable sense of humor.

"You. Are the most beautiful girl in the world," he said, simply because he was awed to a magnificent degree.

She laughed, and they began to laugh together until they were both on the floor. "You're easily the best bodyguard I know."

They laid on the carpet for a while, not wanting to disturb the peace.

Finally, Sakura said, "We should get on with the dresses."

"We should," agreed Niou, not taking his eyes of her face. He had only just noticed that she had taken off her contacts, and that her eyes were a mesmerizing shade of green. She looked into his own gorgeous blues, and wondered what it felt like to feel him, to touch his perfect body--and then she blinked, breaking the silence that had followed. She swallowed hard, and forced herself to forget the vivid image that her imagination had supplied.

"So... which one should I start with first? Black or red... or what?" She finally walked over to her closet, trying not to let any thoughts of sex going into her mind. _Dammit, I've been so. Freaking. Good on my resolution this year. Six months. Six months_, she thought, biting her lip. Was the crack breaking?

"Green," Niou said. "Something to go with your eyes."

"Right," she said absentmindedly, looking for a green dress. "How about this one?" It was a Vera Wang special that she had seen two years ago. It still fit.

Niou cocked his eyes. "Why don't you try it on?"

"Alright," she replied, grateful for an excuse to be in a seperate room than he was. The first thing she had done was grip the sink tightly, taking a deep breath, in and out slowly.

_What is wrong with me_? she bemoaned, cupping her face with her palms. _First I think Michel is back, and now I have the hots for a bodyguard, of all things. I am _such_ a loser_.

Well, in that case she would stop it, of course. She had no qualms about refusing herself love; after all, it wasn't as if she was _addicted_ to it or anything---

"Sakura-hime! Are you done changing yet? You're taking a ridiculous amount of time to get changed!"

"Coming!" she replied hurriedly.

**-x-**

They had decided that she would go with a rich emerald Valentino, which she had rarely worn due to the musty color; she preferred cute and simple dresses. But Niou had insisted it brought out another color of her eyes. Sakura, who had been looking in mirrors for nearly all of her life couldn't tell what was so different, but amazingly enough his eye was tasteful as in sharp, and she was wholeheartedly glad he had not zoned out when she had came out of the bathroom with a new outfit. It really did look decadent, well-made.

He was wearing his tailored suit, which didn't look half as good as she did, but that was men for you. They didn't bother to make themselves look good in times like these.

Niou was playing with the keys. "So... where are we off to now?"

Sakura shrugged. She didn't like driving when she was so well-dressed. "Here's the map."

Niou took it and looked at it for a while. "Nippon Banquet Hall, huh? I know that place. But you're going to have to tell me where we're supposed to park, because I have no idea what your quirky customs are about parking your Porsche."

Sakura sighed. "You really take everything at face value, huh? We park like ordinary people when it comes to being outside. But the thing is, we never seem to pay for parking lots. I guess it's a pride thing."

"Alrightie then," Niou said. "Let's go."

* * *

A/N: Anddddd that's where we stop because it's almost 5,000 plus words and I'm too lazy to add the part where Niou earns his salary. ;)

REVIEW PLEASE. The more reviews the happier I am.


	5. Jumping off a Skyscraper

**A/N: **Before reading this, I strongly encourage readers to listen to "Keep it in the Family" by Hybrid to amp up the badass factor. ;) I swear you will enjoy it ten times better than without the music. If not... well, that's your problem. XD

* * *

"Fuck," Niou swore. All guns cocked on him, the only innocent culprit would be Sakura's widened eyes as she realized how deep they were in the pit of trouble.

"You're not going anywhere, pretty one. As soon as I get Sakurakouji-hime, I will soon be a business tycoon and dominate the entire market of Japan." There was Aogi, who quickly strode over to the girl and clamped a heavy arm over her neck. Her first instinct was to thrash this impudent man for touching her in such an indecent way, but her common sense prevailed and she quickly swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. The quiet, thoughtful look in Niou's eyes soothed her, even though she couldn't quite figure out what he was planning.

He slowly raised his hands, fingers quickly disassembling the bullets so that they fell on the carpet with a dull thud.

"NO!" cried Sakura, but she was quickly silenced with the coldest glare she had ever seen on his face.

"Let the girl go, and none of you will have to suffer extensive damage to your bodies," he said quietly.

Aogi guffawed. "Stop bluffing, you lousy excuse for a bodyguard. There's only one of you. What can a person like you, surrounded by my armed men---"

Niou moved so quickly that Sakura could barely follow his movements until he had grasped Aogi in his arms and pressed a Colt .25 to his head, effectively stopping her fear for a moment.

"Shoot her, and he dies. He hasn't even paid you yet," Niou commented dryly, masking his true worry, and that had to do with Sakura. "Now then..."

"What should I do?" Niou said, silently mocking him with his eyes, dancing with cruel mischief. "Should I pretend to shoot you, or I give you the orders?"

"Stay away!" Aogi roared, which his men backed off to the wall. "If I die, Woo Sun will be the one giving orders, understand?!?"

"Wise decision," Niou winked, and pressed the trigger.

There was no blood, no horrified screaming, no surprise. Nothing happened, until---

**_BLAM! _**A huge cacophony of explosions decimated the far half of the building, while Niou took Sakura by the hand, still hauling Aogi. Fire was beginning to spread quickly and closely to their exact location.

"Shit! We're going to have to scale the buildings! No doubt Aogi's men are still in the lower levels and have orders to shoot both of us."

Sakura, a girl of action, immediately unbuckled her high heels and threw them into the fire. "What should we do first?"

Niou glanced at Aogi. "I don't want him to be conscious, even though it'd be such a drag to carry him around." He tossed her a gun. "Can you shoot?"

Uncertainty clouded her face. "I got lessons once, but---"

"No buts," Niou said curtly. "This is an _emergency_." The look of determination returned and they quickly made up to the 11th floor, where there would be sure to be some rooftops to leap to safety... or at least, to put some distance between the enemy. It was a battle, and he was very unprepared.

"If anyone gets too close and is working by himself, use the pepper spray and taser. This should be non-lethal."

"That bomb wasn't... you know, a bomb that kills people?"

"No, it was designed to shatter eardrums. That's why I made you wear those synthetic earplugs before we came in: you can hear at a safe frequency but when it comes to that bomb it omits sound completely. I didn't count on it to break the wires in the cooking room to start a fire."

He put a slug in one of the windows and leaped out, landing very catlike on his feet. Now they were on the rooftop of an attractive hotel. Unfortunately he couldn't say that Aogi was uninjured, as he had thrown him down there before getting out himself. Niou shrugged. He was planning to get him to a hospital anyways.

"It's eight feet down there! How can I jump down there without breaking a leg?" Sakura hollered.

"I'll catch you! Just get down there!"

Sakura gulped, closed her eyes, and with all of her leg strength, jumped. She had never jumped so high up before, except for the diving board. The feeling was surreal.

It wasn't a hard jump, and Niou had the best pair of eyes in the business, calculating her weight and catching her body just in time. She opened her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, until her breath hitched at the thought of being so close to his face.

"You saved me," she said gratefully.

"Women," he said and rolled his eyes. He let her down, which brought another fact: she wasn't wearing shoes, and her Valentino dress was as good as ruined from the glass shards that flown from the explosion. It was miraculous that none of it had cut through her skin.

**Flashback**

Sakura's suspicion was aroused first. She had texted Niou first under the white tablecloth in the tables, with a frantic, "_I don't know _any_ of these people here! What am I going to do_?"

Niou had read her message, and covertly took a sweep around the room. Certainly this was bad enough, but she was in a secluded corner and was an excellent place to be a victim without any evidence to show for it. Five minutes after everyone had been seated in their proper place a man had fired five shots into the air, causing chaos to take its reign, making everyone that wasn't involved call the local police. All of them fled, not wishing to spend their entire evening being questioned by the lawyers.

Niou would have happily fled along with them were it not for the fact that everyone in Sakura's proximity took out a weapon and pointed it directly at her forehead. His pulse drumming, he had knocked out two of the men.

"What's going on here?" screamed Sakura, which brought him back from his animal rage. "Who--who--are you? What do you want?!?"

Her green eyes swept up to Niou's face, hysterical and incidentally looking better than he had ever seen her. "N-Niou?"

He didn't have get to answer as at least twenty armed and very dangerous men pointed at his back. Aogi grinned.

"Nice to see you again, Sakura-chan," he said wolfishly.

**-x-**

Niou looked downwards. "Why aren't the paralegals making their way yet?"

"He's probably rigged the cable lines," Sakura said unexpectedly, making her way towards him. "He's not the first one to try it."

"Have... have you been attacked before?"

She nodded reluctantly. "And again, I never know if I get to live then. By then my fear escalates to a whole new level, and just breathing is utter hell."

"To quote an American, 'the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.'" Niou said softly.

"How sentimental," a voice said behind him.

"Amazing," Niou breathed, not bothering to turn his head. "You survived the impact?"

Aogi looked positively feral at that moment, and resembled a golden lion ready on the edge of prey. "My brother, that was simply elementary. I saw you by _her _side--" his finger jerked toward Sakura's--"and remembered that this was your custom; no deaths, no mindless killing, and a clever strategy to leave no evidence at the scene of investigation. Two plus two equal four, Niou Masaharu."

Sakura's mouth gaped open, eyes flicking from Niou's blue ones to Aogi's. Brother? This was impossible.

Niou chuckled gormlessly. "Welcome back, 'Nii-san, or should I say the backstabber who sold our secrets for a lavish lifestyle in South Korea?" He finally turned his head around, with a twisted smile on his face. "I'm not the hormonal teenager I once was anymore, Aogi."

It might have been said that Aogi was a good looking man, perhaps even better looking than Niou with his golden hair and his toned body. Now she could see the similarities. Had she ever bothered to ask him about his personal history? Now his eyes were filled with a quiet anger, which she understood to not be composed with hate, but an intolerance towards his kind.

"At least I don't hesitate to kill. Perhaps that was the reason why Y never bothered to promote you, hm?"

"Lives are worth more than your fleeting whimsies, 'Nii-san," Niou said pleasantly, as if they were discussing the weather or something less trivial. "We've been over this before, haven't we, 'Nii-san? We shouldn't cross paths while doing our jobs."

"Hmph!" spat Aogi contemptuously. "Who says I'll follow that principle, Masaharu?"

"I certainly wouldn't, 'Nii-san. My charge is Sakurakouji-hime, and I am under an obligation not to surrender her, no matter my relations to you or her."

It was impossible to Sakura that she was hearing this conversation; she was very close to seeing a man murdered tonight. She clenched her fist.

"_Stop_," she said simply. Niou did not look back, for he was very aware that if he turned his back, it could be fatal. "Aogi-san, I don't know why you're here, but certainly I could do you a service in exchange to leave us alone."

His blue eyes were riveted. "I want you to fire your bodyguard, Sakura-hime. He's not going to protect you."

"I'll do no such thing," she replied coldly. "That would only leave me without anyone that won't die under... _special circumstances_."

"Oho... "Aogi said softly. "Already becoming close, aren't you? Remember what Y and the rest always said?"

_Don't get attached._

"I'm not," Niou replied, and shot Aogi's stomach. Sakura screamed.

**-x-**

Sakura could feel the vomit coming up through her throat, and crawled over to the edge of the roof to throw up. She hadn't seen this much blood, ever, and it made her feel ashamed for being so weak. So unmistakably womanish. It made her sick, and angry. Why couldn't have Niou just knock him out again so they could make a quick escape? It wasn't killing for necessity, it was more like _murder_...

Niou's eyes were blazing, and the anger that emnated out of him made her sick, too. It wasn't hate. It was much stronger than hate; it was the self-entitlement of making the decision to kill this man that made her nauseous. She furiously wiped her mouth and forced herself to stand up.

"You are a _murderer_," she spat at his feet.

He looked her in the eye. "It's shooting him, or him shooting me. Is that what you want, Sakura? In a few seconds, he was ready to kill me, and take your body to a place your father was never going to reach. Is that what you want?"

"I don't understand you! You rescued me by knocking out people, not killing. Why couldn't you have done something---you're good enough! I can tell you know what you're doing! Why couldn't you just knocked him out and get the hell out of here?!?"

A deadly silence suddenly cranked up the tension a notch higher. Niou's face looked murderous, and Sakura was petrified that she would end exactly like Aogi--a bloody mass without anyone to hold his hand when he would die. Her arms were trembling, but she tried her best to not look afraid.

Then a tired look went into his eyes, replacing the last expression of anger. "Sakura-chan, I don't know if you would understand."

It was the first time he had ever called her that before. She had heard it a million times by a million other people, but this time it sounded pitiful and weak. Pleading. Suddenly she understood. This was a secret he didn't want her to know, just like her own life that she didn't want him to know.

"All right," she said, finally, and the look that he gave her was enough for him to understand that he wouldn't have to tell her, for now. She took his hand with wonder, still warm and smelling like gunpowder.

"Let's go home."

**-x-**

They were both very tired when they got home. For Niou, it was because he was tired physically and emotionally, while Sakura had a whirlwind of things to think about. They noiselessly made their way into their bedroom. Sakura avoided the bathroom, she was quite sure she wouldn't be able to face herself in the mirror for tonight. She tore off her dress, now useless but still beautiful, and slipped on on a white nightgown.

She laid on her bed an hour later, a comfortable thing made of memory foam, but the thought of being alone terrified her. She was too tired to actually sleep, and consequently her eyes were large and empty, her head were filled with too many fears and predictions about her future that she refused to relax.

Without thinking, she got out of bed and flung open the door to Niou's bedroom.

_What am I doing_? Sakura asked herself, but somehow laying in the same bed as he was in seemed so appealing. He didn't stir.

She sat on the bed, positive that he would have a reaction after the exertion of her body on his mattress. He turned to his side, his eyes closed.

"What are you doing over here, Sakura?" he said in a muffled voice. "You should get to bed."

"I can't sleep."

"Really." Now he sounded more awake. "Get in, but you have to promise me you'll get up before Katsura catches us."

She laughed quietly. "I bet he installed cameras all over the suite, Niou. I'll sleep on the floor."

"No you won't. I disabled all bugs and cameras over here. Whatever you wanted to say on tonight's subject is strictly between us."

Sakura got in, recognizing a chance to find out what had happened.

"I just... you know," Sakura finally started. "Look, I didn't know you could be... like _that_."

He blinked, his white hair rough without his customary ponytail in it. "It's my job. I have to get used to it. A bodyguard is useless if they cannot shield the client from possible dangers. My life is always the first to go, and it will continue to be for the sake of the client's life."

A pause, then he added, "It's a very mundane and lonely job, just like yours."

Sakura did nothing but to proceed inhaling his scent.

"You smell good."

"Ralph Lauren," he replied. "I have to be presentable in front of civilized people."

"What else do you do from body guarding?"

He didn't answer for a while, preferring to stare at the ceiling.

"Niou?"

"It's not very interesting."

"You're interesting being yourself," she commented, this being the truest statement she had ever said to him. "You play cards, you eat a lot, and you pull the worst pranks ever."

The characteristics she had rattled off made him smile. "I don't take pride in that."

"Were you lonely?"

"Yes. Yes, I was."

"Are you still like that?"

"Honestly, yes. Now I prefer solitude. If I was a people person like you, I would have quit my job a long time ago."

"I'll take that as a cue to leave, then. Oyasuminasai, Masaharu." She didn't want him to start remembering bad memories and blame it on her this time.

"Wait," he said briefly.

Her heart started fluttering. "What is it?"

"You wanted to know what I thought before I pulled the trigger, right?"

She swallowed, trying to decide whether it was a good time to tell the truth or not. But Niou didn't want to wait for her to answer.

"I thought of you, Sakura... I thought of you being at the mercy of Aogi, and I shot him."

**-x-**

The next few days were in a blur with Niou keeping a polite distance away from her. It wasn't explicitly stated, but she was bothered by the coolness of his manner with little things: passing the salt shaker, thanking her for breakfast, and carelessly volunteering to drive. He knew a lot better than to volunteer; she was a fanatic about driving her own Porsche.

One the third day, she slammed her glass of milk on the coffee table, Niou looking up from his scrambled eggs.

"I don't know what your motherfucking problem is, Niou, but if you don't tell me I am going to personally beat the crap out of you."

"Me? Have a problem? I don't know what you're talking about."

"I do. You haven't let me drive for the last few days. What are you trying to say?"

Niou began to look at her as if she possessed the intelligence of a three-year-old. "Are you really _that_ stupid? My job is to drive you!"

"Yeah, but here's the thing, _Niou_. You are going to have to be polite about it. That is _my_ Porsche. Those are _my_ motherfucking keys. I am paying the gas for it to _drive_."

"Your point?"

"I should be driving it!"

Niou knew Sakura too well to take this at face value. If she had insisted on driving it, she would have already shoved him out of the driver's seat and jammed her own set of keys into the igniter.

"Fine, you're driving it," he said. "Anything else you want to complain about?"

"Yes. You're not telling me what your problem is."

"I don't have a problem."

"Yes, you do. First, you're not telling your employer what the hell is wrong with you. Second, Katsura wants to know why you're not talking to him anymore. Third, you're not talking to any of us, including Itakoji, my dad. We are going to find out what your goddamned problem is, even if I have to hire a private investigator. Understand?"

She ended these series of statements with a slam on the table, then locked herself into the bathroom ostensibly to take a shower.

Niou sat, a bit taken aback by the her audacity. Who did she think he was, to threaten him with a full-on suspicious inquiry? Yukimura wouldn't stand for that treatment and neither would the rest of the team back home. All of them were protected by special circumstances, including him. He considered the possibility of her reporting to the authorities about Aogi's murder, but cast it away as soon as it came. Sakura would have been too proud to actually report a case of her at the risk of being abducted.

He could only do one thing in times of stress: stealing more food from her plate.

**-x-**

Katsura didn't come that day to Niou's chagrin, for it meant Sakura had the opportunity to interrogate him all day.

He thought through a plan. "Sakura!" he called, even though he knew the shower was still on.

"What?" she yelled through the door, keeping a lick of irritation in her voice. "What do you want? I'm kind of busy at the moment!"

"We're going to the gym today!"

"WHAT?!?" She was so shocked that she jumped out of the shower and opened the door. "What did you say?"

"I said, we're going to the..." Niou had stopped mid-sentence, for he had gotten an eyeful with seeing her with only a towel to cover herself. "Wow. What a rack---OW!"

"The last thing I need is a horny bodyguard who lives with me 24/7!" snapped Sakura angrily. "What did you SAY?"

Niou put his hand on his eyes more for her sake than his, and replied, "We're going to the gym. The last thing I need you to be is being completely useless when some gang leader sniffs around our turf."

"I'm not weak! I don't need to waste an entire day working out!"

"Keeping in shape should be a good habit," said Niou, who seemed to be delighted about her blatant refusal. "With your eating habits right now, you are going to be FAT. And if you are FAT, then no one will like you anymore to help your dad with his job. So therefore, we are going to exercise to prevent you from being FAT. The other two options would be synchronized swimming, or football with testosterone-filled she-males. Which one will it be?"

Sakura blew air out of her mouth. "Fine. Working out until you completely waste my time, in which that would be grounds for firing."

"Good!" Niou said happily. He took off his hand from his eyes. "By the way, you look completely fuckable today."

"**_NIOU!!!"_**

**-x-**

It took at least ten minutes to get rid of that colossal blush from her cheeks, ten minutes to change and comb through her hair, and at least another five to pack water and granola bars in her backpack. Niou was getting bored. What was with women and their need to be ultimately prepared?

_Oh god oh god oh god oh god_... was one of her first thoughts. _He is going to completely show off and humiliate me in front of everybody! But I can't say no now, that would be embarrassing! Ahhh!_ _But why would he take me there if he wanted me to learn how to defend myself? I could have hired a teacher or something... or he could have taught me!_

Now they were in the car with Niou taking the lead. Sakura-hime, hyperventilating, was already beginning to sweat bullets.

"Do you play sports?" he asked eventually.

"I hate sports," she said meekly. "I'm never good at them and I don't have the right stamina for any of them."

"So stereotypical of the teenaged girl," snorted Niou. "You never know until you're confident enough to try."

"Hey, playing sports is definitely on my agenda, Niou. The only reason I said yes was because I thought I was going to gain weight."

"See? Another perk of playing sports. Most people don't realize that exercise can be addicting."

"Exercise, _addicting_? You have to be kidding me."

Niou coughed delicately. He wasn't stupid enough to get into another argument with her. She was an extremely beautiful girl, to be sure, but she was somewhat of a narssicist and reminded him too much of Atobe.

Speaking of beautiful... he had never seen as much exposed skin as he did when she stepped out of the shower. He had never seen a female body before, and now that he had, his standards were going to have to be ridiculously high to be on par with other women. And if he was going to be honest, he kind of wished she wasn't the rich, unattainable girl--the kind who would wrap older men around her finger. He had an inkling she did a lot more than she implied she did.

He sighed, and parked neatly in front of the place where his map told him to go. He had gotten free membership a couple of months ago by helping out a few friends.

"Welcome, please sign in---Oh! Niou-san." A pretty young lady greeted them cheerfully at the front counter. "It's nice to see you! And who is this at the front counter?"

"Someone that needs a lot of exercise," he said bluntly, and she laughed. (Sakura was resisting the urge to punch him.) "By the way, Ryuuzaki-san, I'd like to reserve weight room."

"No problem. It's a Thursday and none of the regulars come at this time."

"Your grandmother still teaching aerobics, then?"

"Oh, yes. She just hired a new coach for the tennis section; I think you know him. Echizen Ryoma... ?"

"I may have known him from somewhere. Well, I'd better get going."

"Feel free to come any time."

Sakura made sure the girl was out of earshot before she asked, "So, you can use almost all of the facility without any charge?"

"Yeah, I helped out Sakuno so much when I pulled a couple of jobs here. She's the nicest girl I've met. You could take some lessons from her."

"How rude!" Sakura started indignantly, but Niou shook his head, reprimanding her, "We should get started instead of wasting time." He opened a door to a room completely covered by a single sheet of wood hammered into the walls.

"Take off your shoes," he commanded. She did so, and he tossed her a pair of boxing gloves while simultaneously dragging a sand bag to the center of the room.

"Punch."

She tried once, a feeble attempt that only made the sandbag move a centimeter. She grimaced.

"Harder."

She tried again, putting a bit more force.

"You're doing it wrong," Niou said critically, using his hands to adjust her position to the sandbag. "You want to employ the inertia from your hips so you can maximize the force into the punch."

"How do I do that?"

He blinked. "It's different for a lot of people to focus on parts of their core body. Try again."

She swung from her hips, and to her amazement, the sand bag went a foot longer than her previous attempt. "Wow. I didn't use any more force than the last one."

"It's only the law physics coming into play," Niou said, shrugging. "If I do double punches---" and he proceeded to demonstrate to Sakura's dismay, "---it can triple the effect."

"Right-o, Mr. Bodybuilder."

"Bodyguard," Niou corrected automatically. "I want you to do twenty five of them in a minute..."

**-x-**

At the end of the punching session, Sakura was sore and tired and very much a quitter. How Niou could stand to do almost a hundred per minute was beyond her, and she was beginning to appreciate how much training Niou had to take before coming to his position at his current stage. She did not, however, appreciate the training he was making her do.

"Can't we go home already?" whined Sakura.

"No," replied Niou smoothly. He had anticipated a struggle of change, and knew that the best way was to not give an option to the recipient. "Can you do situps?"

"Uh... yeah, I guess. Why?"

"I was just wondering if you could do ten."

"Of course I can do ten! Look..." And she proceeded to do them beautifully and more importantly, correctly. Niou was impressed.

He took a ball marked 5.5 kg that looked like a basketball. "This is a medicine ball, which is filled with sand to make it heavy. I'm going to pass it to you when you come up from a situp, and you are going to pass it back to me."

"That doesn't look hard," she commented.

He smirked. "We're doing fifty of them."

This was a basic station that he had gone through when he was eleven; not only did it improve his abdomen area, but also taught to keep an eye on the ball. If your eyes went wandering, it would be sure to smack your face, which would be rather unpleasant.

"Ow!" Sakura cried after the 20th situp. "My tummy feels like it's burning! Can we stop, please?"

"It's burning through the fat, doofus," Niou rolled his eyes, but didn't toss the ball back. It _did_take some getting used to, he thought. In return he made her do Russian twists and up-downs. To finish it off, he made her do 35 pushups.

"Seriously, this is not funny," she snapped to him.

"I'm not laughing," Niou said, but he was not convincing enough. Consequently, Sakura threw the orange medicine ball at him, which he caught to her consternation.

"I'll improve."

"That's the spirit. And by the way, that was warmup."

"WHAT?!?"

**-x-**

"This is a weight room, Sakura-hime. Relax. It won't kill you or anything."

"I'm not coming in there."

"Keep up that attitude and you're getting locked with the she-males on the football team. They're training right now."

Sakura practically ran over him.

The weight room was pretty sterile in terms of decoration. It was also a bit cool with the air conditioner running on high.

"Wait---how come the weights are in pounds?" She had always gotten confused with some people using the metric system.

"Ryuuzaki-san--the grandmother, that is--had a friend that were running some shipments over from America. Apparently they had a canceled order, so she got a good deal. If you ask me about it, pounds are a bit easier to measure. They're in smaller quantities, which is a great thing for weight training."

He pulled her over to a strange contraption that had a weight stuck on the bottom. "What's that?"

"A leg press. I realized you hadn't gotten to do any leg work yet. Hm... a forty five? I'll add ten to that."

"Don't! That'll just be enough for a beginner."

His eyebrows went up. "You don't know how to work it."

"Psh. I had a friend that was a soccer player. She told me what a leg press was."

She stuck the crook of her leg into the bars that stuck out, and began to swing it up and down vertically like a swing. "Hey--this is easy!"

"Not when you've got 150 pounds on that bad boy," Niou said, a bit too smug for his own good. "It's easy when it's too light for your body."

"Whatever."

After five minutes of leg pressing she had to admit it wasn't so easy anymore. Niou explained to her about lactic acid buildup, and that she would wake up tomorrow morning sore.

"You suck," she said dispassionately. "I heard about it--you can't even walk down the stairs without hobbling like a hag."

"Reminds you of someone familiar?" Niou asked, and Sakura answered by giving him a smack to his head.

"Ow. That hurt."

"So, what's the next station?"

**-x-**

Amazingly enough, she wasn't tired as in totally exhausted, but tired with the satisfaction of working hard. She let Niou take full reign of the Porsche, as he wasn't even sweating though he had lifted ten times the weight that she had. She had a new awe for Niou, and told him so. He chuckled.

"Oh, really? It's nothing special, Sakura-hime. You'll get used to it and catch up to me."

"Was that _sarcasm_ I detect? That was beautifully executed, by the way."

"Thank you," he said gravely. He kept his eye on his road. One of them had to.

"So... am I going to do this every week or what?"

"I don't know, it depends," Niou said, thinking over it. "I mean, are you actually looking forward to working out?"

"I guess. I mean, it's not totally bad."

He gave her a wicked grin. "You sure? Because I could always assign laps and make you learn karate..."

**-x-**

Night quickly came, and it was long after Sakura had realized something. Niou was back to his regular self, and she wasn't sure why.

* * *

**A Few Notes**

Aogi is up to debate whether he is dead or not. I swear I just spotted a couple of plot holes, but they will quickly be resolved. Have patience.

Niou's character is really hard to nail, and therefore I apologize for any transgressions, although Yagyuu is a bit harder to write... TToTT

I've realized that I've gotten very few reviews, but I won't make that a factor when it comes to updating regularly. But please, I'd like to know what you think about it. It would help me... like a LOT. I just really want to know why I'm getting very few feedback when other people's OC fics have a ton more. :(

Oh, and I have a new C2. Check it out on my profile.


	6. lust

A week passed by without any serious problems to interrupt the routine that Sakura and Niou usually shared. Usually, both of them got up at seven, or at least seven thirty. Niou would shower first while she tried not to doze on the sofa; he got dressed, she got dressed, and Katsura got around the suite at eight. He would tell them what their agenda was, possibly going with them for an hour or two, leave, and leave the two alone. As a consequence, they had grown used to each other. Between social events and lunches and brunch and so on, Niou taught her different types of self-defense and worked out.

"You are going to fight me today," Niou said one Friday; strangely enough, it was a day off. "And best of all, you won't have to stick with one discipline."

"Seriously?" Sakura said, eyes wide open. "_Why_?"

"I want to gauge your strength," Niou said, taking off his boxer gloves and clenching his fists. "Also, I won't be attacking. Offensively, you're at a disadvantage because you're a female--" (at this Sakura shot a glare at him, to which he ignored, as usual) "--but with the special training I adapted for your body, I hope you won't go without breaking a few ribs, or at least, creating a big diversion. Remember, fighting is the _very_ last option."

"Okay, here I come!" She aimed for his head, but he had expertly used the palm of his hand to absorb the kinetic energy before she withdrew it. She then used her left fist to punch his gut, but he had already predicted it and dodged.

"Good job," he encouraged. Sakura was putting thinking into the physical, and not relying too much on instinct, like she had two weeks ago. She responded with a well-executed kick that was only avoided with his sharp reflexes.

The sparring session continued for five minutes until Niou had told her to stop. She was out of breath, but was a bit amazed by what she could do. Sparring with Niou was like sparring with the wind, but she was fairly confident she could take down the average guy and maybe a couple of weaker gangsters. It didn't mean that she was actually going to look out for a fight, though; Niou had always said repeatedly that fighting was the last option.

Sakura's body was curvy and flexible, things that Niou had pointed out at the beginning of the training session, which would allow her to learn things quicker than most people. She had a lot of strength, now that he had mentioned it. She just didn't choose to use it constructively until Niou had forced (okay, maybe she was willing to learn how to beat the crap out of people) her to go into workout sessions. She could now do twenty pullups without suffering, even if that was weak compared to his morning routine of fifty.

Of course, ordinary people didn't have a personal trainer that worked with you 24/7. Whenever she was eating a bowl of ice cream in front of the TV for more than an hour, Niou would remind her to do exercises between commercials. She was annoyed that Niou turned out to be right: exercise was addicting and that it was a stress-buster that she had always found excuses to avoid. Another great thing was that her pollen allergies had gone away and that she lost half a kilogram of weight.

"Okay," Niou said, after he had taken a sip of water. "Assessing your attack, it has a lot of power and you didn't make too many bad moves like you did a week ago. But you leave a lot of openings which could allow a more experienced opponent target those areas."

"How do I close those areas?"

"Practice," Niou said vaguely. "I can't actually help you with that part, because if you find them out yourself, then it's going to help you a lot more than, say, relying on someone like me."

"What! I'm still a beginner!"

"Not anymore," he replied, a bit smug. "Niou-sensei says that he's taught you well enough, remember?"

She stuck out her tongue. "Third-person is lame, Niou-sensei."

They started sparring again.

**-x-**

In bed and safely tucked away, Sakura was free to hear her own thoughts. It was never that quiet during the day: either she was too busy thinking up a witty retort or fighting or having conversations with extremely good looking men with Rolexes and lazy smirks. She was inwardly thankful that nobody read minds, for there was one guy in general that kept popping in her head--and who else other than Niou?

She had always known that Niou would have been a problem, but her biggest issue in life was self-discipline. When she grew up, she was a spoiled child since her mother was nonexistent and her father too busy to keep an eye on her. Only did she move to different countries had she opened her eyes to regular people and their own problems that she had matured. She was enormously proud of herself of a lot of things: intelligence, beauty, money, and wit, but if there were things that she wasn't so proud about, it would have to be her weakness to men. Particularly interesting men. Niou was no exception.

Her first boyfriend without the approval of her father was when she was fifteen. Back then, she was a whole different continent, and the culture was incredibly lenient. He was a surfer, perhaps not so unique in California, but he appreciated Asian women for their beauty and had quickly charmed the heck out of her before she could say "Kami". That breakup call was incredibly harsh. She still winced when she caught him hooking up with another girl--the thought that she was rejected for another inferior being was painful.

After that she had been more careful--France was less radical than America, after all--but the monotony of being cooped up in the winter was enough to make her scream "Someone save me!" And we know how that story goes, she said to herself, darkly chuckling at the memory.

**-x-**

"You know, you don't remind me of Michel anymore."

Niou froze, in the middle of sipping his raspberry lemonade. He instantly looked at Sakura-hime, who to his great surprise was still staring at him intently.

"Ah... so did Katsura tell you?"

He fiddled with his straw, not wishing to start a violent confrontation; he was too aware that this was a personal matter. Both of them were reserved when it came to things that they had done in the past. That was another thing they shared in common: they hated being judged more than anything. So besides the safe, harmless things like Niou's favorite color and how come he dyed his hair the way it was--she didn't know much beyond that.

"He told me that he was flighty."

Sakura laughed lightly. "He was. But in truth, I told him that because I had to believe that he'd come back to me."

"You don't... I mean, why are you telling me?"

"I felt like it," shrugged Sakura. "Yesterday I was thinking about it all night, and I thought... why not? Everybody has a memory where things don't go the way they want."

"So what happened?"

"He left. No name, no address, no phone number: all erased. I was obsessed with finding a connection; I would wander around his former apartment and ask one his neighbors where he went. They didn't know."

"Why did he do that?"

"That's the thing. I don't know. Maybe he had a wife at home and he wanted to start an affair. Maybe he knew I had an addiction to him. I don't know."

To his utter astonishment--she was crying. The strong, brave, Sakura was replaced by something that knew emotional pain. She was crying quietly, and suddenly he was seized by the urge to protect her. Now he understood why he was here.

He set down his glass, slapped down some bills, not bothering to count tips, and grabbed her hand.

"What are you doing?" she said out of surprise. Niou was the sort of person that didn't touch--at least, not on purpose. "Come," he said. There was no need for explanation; he just hated the sight of her being forced into submission. It wasn't right, it wasn't normal, and most of all...

It made him feel lonely.

**-x-**

"This, Niou, is the lamest place you could ever take me on earth."

"Hey, the cotton candy here is a lot better than you will ever find. Oh yeah, and I keep forgetting that the Mickey Mouse hats are the best things since the invention of sliced bread."

"Psh, I'd rather go dig a hole then wear that on my head."

Niou sadly returned one of the hats back into the stall. In a stroke of inspiration he wanted to cheer her up in the biggest amusement park ever, but she didn't even seem to pick up on the happy-making waves of joy pervading every square inch of the place. Students who were out of school for the summer were going in packs, and couples seemed to be attached to the lips in every corner.

"You've ever been here before?"

"Ha ha, yes. But they wouldn't let me go on the rides; the line was pretty much too long---hey!"

There was a stall that seemed to be abandoned, which was pretty suspicious in her opinion. After all, wasn't this placed crammed with people intent on having fun?

"Hi," said Niou to the bored-looking girl who was behind the cashier. "I'd like... um... a body harness for two."

"Oh thank _god_," the girl exclaimed in a loud voice. "Gosh, we haven't been getting any customers for a while, kids these days are just too chicken... Is that your girlfriend back there? She's pretty cute."

"No," Niou said too quickly, glad that Sakura was five feet away inspecting the contents of a nearby candy shop. The girl smiled, apparently much too understanding for his own liking. "Now then... please wait over here."

"Niou?" said Sakura a second later, after the girl was busy in the back room fetching things for equipment. "What exactly are we doing?"

His stomach flipped at the shock of seeing her, but he quickly arranged his face into what he hoped was a casual expression. "Patience. I promise you are going to flip out--literally."

Her eyes widened. "We just ate."

"I swear I won't laugh if you want to throw up in the trash can."

She glared at him. "You're an asshole. Alright, if I accept I'm going on this crazy ride--which is not cool, Niou--then can we go home?"

The girl came back, sparing Niou from giving an answer. "Hey, you two lovebirds, your equipment is ready. Mind you, the heavier one has to strap in first..."

"We're not lovebirds," they both said under their breath.

**-x-**

"Oh shit..." Sakura swore as she saw herself hoisted about ten meters in the air. "Niou, when we get down from here, I am going to _shoot_ you for taking me _bungee jumping_."

"But it's fun!" Niou said innocently. He was lying next to Sakura-hime, who was turning paler and paler the higher they were jerked into the sky. "I think everyone should do this."

"You totally tricked me into doing this! Grrr!"

"Well, considering I was called the 'Trickster' back home..."

She tried to aim a kick near his crotch, but she was so tightly trussed she could barely move. "Just you wait... Niou Masaharu..."

"In the words of Yanagi-senpai, R-O-F-L."

It was surreal to both of them that they were (still) having an argument about a thousand feet in the sky, but Niou supposed that was the way that their relationship worked. Anyways, the adrenaline was building up in his brain; it was definitely worth buying a ticket there just for a ride.

"Why are we stopping in the middle of... oh shi---------_AAUGHHHHHHHHHHHH_!"

Niou only grinned, as the sensation of losing his stomach and the G-force sent a momentary thrill in his body. Sakura was screaming on the top of her lungs, and looking like she would go into hysterics. They were shooting at least sixty kilometers per hour, faster than any roller coaster operating on magnetic forces. Gravity was doing his work rather well. At one second, it looked like they would smash into the ground only to be jerked up again. The parabola continued for five times until it was no longer fast enough to be scary, and the body harness stopped to descend to the ground.

"So, how was the ride?" the girl asked, now blowing a lime-green bubble out of her mouth. "You don't seem fazed," she said to Niou.

"Well, I know what to expect," he said expectantly. "Her, on the other hand..."

"You are dead," Sakura said hoarsely, her throat dry from all the screaming on the ride.

"Before you kill me, here," said the girl opposite them. "A peach iced tea. My treat."

"Really? Thanks."

"My name's Miyamoto Eri. Nice to actually meet a couple that would go bungee jumping these days. I was getting really bored with my job."

"We're not a couple," Niou and Sakura automatically said.

"Why does every couple that I say hello to deny that?" Eri rolled her eyes.

"We're really not. I'm her bodyguard."

"Oh. That explains a lot, like your clothes. Nobody wears a suit and tie at a time like this. How do you like, not sweat?"

"You get used to it, I guess," Niou said absentmindedly.

"But there are a couple of things that are a bit funny to me. I mean, she wasn't so thrilled to go jumping--so does that mean that you made her go on the ride?"

"Uh, yeah," Sakura said, annoyed. "Otherwise, I would have strayed far, _far_ away from the place. No offense."

"None taken. Like I said, my job is really boring."

"I'd love to stay here and chat, but the merry-go-round calls to me. We only have the entire afternoon. Ja..."

Niou made to follow her, but before he could do that Eri clamped a hand over his. "Hey, it's Niou, right? You never like, told us why you just decided to go in the middle of the day diving in the sky. No self-respecting bodyguard would willingly put her at risk."

Crap. She was right.

"I guess... it was the fact that I looked so much like her ex-boyfriend that I had to do something extremely crazy to get rid of that perception. I'm not an asshole that would just leave her, despite the fact she keeps trying to tell me that I am." He grinned. "And anyways, a job like mine is do the complete opposite, like stalking her so she doesn't make the same mistake again."

"Wow... " Eri whistled. "You really are devoted."

Niou just smiled and turned his back so he could run to accompany Sakura.

**-x-**

At night, Sakura was exhausted. Niou had insisted on going on almost every roller coaster, and while that had been pretty fun, it wasn't as fun as pretending to be Niou's girlfriend while waiting in line.

Obviously, the most prominent memory was diving about two hundred feet in the sky. That was pretty intense.

It was exhilarating to be next to someone and just... take a risk. But that wasn't the main point that she was concerned with. _Why would he do something like ditching work for a day and take me for... a date_? she asked inside her head. It looked deceptively pointless in her opinion, but she knew him much too well to just take it at face value. Niou was meticulous and careful and thought things out; that much she had been aware of when it came to things like her own safety. He was intelligent and perceptive...

She sat up in her bed and considered asking him the question personally, but then she knew she wouldn't get a real answer; not the one she was looking for, anyways.

Sighing, Sakura decided that if she was ever going to get any sleep, she might as well distract herself for a while. Flipping her cell phone open, there were ten messages in her inbox. She scrolled through them until she spotted an unfamiliar number.

---

_xxEri_

---

_Don't worry, im not stalking u i got this number _

_after i kinda sneaked a peek in ur purse! tee hee._

_but u two r so cute! :3 i just wanted to say that_

_you guys should go here again! and u look kinda_

_familiar... mayb coincidence? ha ha. luv, Eri._

---

Sakura sighed, and started lamenting the fact for about the thousandth time that Niou was definitely out of bounds. Not only was it socially illegal, it was the stupidest idea that her head had ever concieved in the history of Bad Experiences. Being the trickster that he was, she could easily guess that he would promise something and deliver something different. It didn't take much of a genius to realize that people like Niou were never straightforward. With Atobe, at least she could ask him bluntly what he wanted and get the real answer.

She sighed again, turned off her cell phone, and waited for the sandman to come.

**-x-**

They were eating lunch in Sakura's room the next door because it was a rainy day--cool as well. She had correctly assumed that opening the window to let in the fresh air would be the best thing to do when they didn't have any work to do.

"Do you like strawberries?" she asked him, while cutting up fresh produce and sprinkling sugar over them for dessert. She wasn't a bad cook when she wanted to be.

"Strawberries. Unmistakably feminine, sweet, and of course the essence of innocence. Nope."

"They're delicious when you add something sweet to them." Sakura took a whole strawberry and dipped it in white sugar. She offered it to him, but he shook his head.

"I am not going to eat the strawberry. They taste like crap."

"It's just one strawberry," she coaxed.

"I _hate_ strawberries."

"Come on, Niou. It's high in potassium."

"And so is a banana; why can't I eat that instead of the strawberry?"

"Niou, you are so going to eat the strawberry."

He gave her a look that clearly meant, "_Make me_."

Well, fine then.

She forced the fruit into his open mouth to his surprise, but his reflexes pulled him out of the way just in time. He landed on the bed; effectively disabling him while Sakura used her new found strength to pin him down. He struggled for a bit, but it was cut short by her thighs that clamped his upper body.

"Say ah," she demanded.

"No way," he said quickly before he closed his mouth again.

"I'll throw away your Kevlar vest."

"Neve---!" She had already stuffed part of the strawberry into his mouth. He couldn't even decide whether he wanted to spit it out or swallow it. Sakura giggled, then held up the remaining part of the strawberry, which unfortunately for her meant an opening for him to throw her off his body.

"Now, who's the one in charge?" he said triumphantly, laying his hand on her chest, legs... oh god. She didn't want to know where they were. Suddenly she realized the implications of their posture, on a bed, no less.

"You," she replied breathlessly. "You are."

It occurred to her that this might be the usual sexed-up banter between her and her old boyfriends, like foreplay, but she knew better. He wasn't hers, he wasn't a crazed hormone-ravaged teenager. He was... just her bodyguard.

"Since I'm obviously in charge..." he murmured softly, taking the rest of the strawberry and pushing it into her already open mouth. "I think you can do the honors..."

It was her fault. Her body was acting of her own accord, paying absolutely no attention to what her mind was telling her.

It was his fault too--he was pushing his goddamned finger into her mouth, and suddenly, it moved onto her tongue, feeling her teeth... _Just like a French kiss_, she thought hazily.

The finger withdrew from her and put it on her breast, quivering under the exceptionally thin material from the tension, the haze that made her thoughts foggy.

Niou didn't react like he should have--that is, getting off of her as soon as the strawberry was _finally_ disposed of--his eyes, usually aware, were strangely blank as they bored into her own, like he was observing the entire process.

His hand wandered under her shirt, and for some reason Sakura wished she hadn't bothered to put on a bra. This was so wrong on so many levels; they hadn't even kissed, they didn't even have an excuse like being drunk to act... like this. This was her bodyguard. Albeit a very good looking, charming, young bodyguard. But dammit, this was a strictly professional relationship--how the hell would she be even able to ignore the blatant sexual attraction between them?

"Stop," she finally said in desperation. "Masaharu... stop it."

His eyes finally snapped at the mention of his personal name, and his hands withdrew from where they shouldn't have gone. Upset, he got off the bed. She couldn't read his expression.

"I'm sorry," he finally said, running a hand in his silver hair in his agitation. "That was very unprofessional of me."

They were too intelligent to try the denial game, no matter how tempting it was to blow it off as an accident. Sakura sighed, and began to eat the strawberries, wishing she hadn't quite insisted on making him eat them.

"It was my fault."

"No, it was mine; I should have stopped after eating--"

"--no, I put your hand on my--"

"--and I should have never stuck--"

"--yes, that's what _you_ want, isn't it?"

She knew from his darkened expression that she had gone too far; and she kicked the wall in frustration. Sakura was grateful for the pain in her toe, for it distracted the utter chaos that was flying around her heart.

The only sane thought in her head that seemed to be the right thing to do was to get as far as possible from him. She ran and ran from her suite, not caring if he bothered to run after her, or sit on his bed, uncaring as usual... Fuck. She wanted him to care and forget about his obligations, she wanted to have sex with him so bad, she wanted him so much that she would have gladly jumped off the roof if it meant he would gladly say yes to her.

The waterfall in the front lobby was cool, and she took a seat to try and sort out everything in her head.

This was just another case of lust, wasn't it? It would probably go away if she suppressed the urge.

With that in mind, she headed back to her room.

* * *

**Author's Note**: That was the closest thing I got to writing an actual lemon. :D

It's rushed (again) but camping trip is TOMORROW~ so, therefore... update!

REVIEW PLZ. :3


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